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Bede:

On Ezra and Nehemiah

Scott DeGregorio

Translated Texts for Historians

This series is designed to meet the needs of students of ancient and
medieval history and others who wish to broaden their study by
reading source material, but whose knowledge of ancient languages is
not sufficient to allow them to do so in the original language. Many
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Editorial Committee

Sebastian Brock, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford

Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford

Henry Chadwick, Oxford

Marios Costambeys, University of Liverpool

John Davies, University of Liverpool

Carlotta Dionisotti, King’s College, London

Peter Heather, Worcester College, Oxford

William E. Klingshirn, The Catholic University of America

Michael Lapidge, Clare College, Cambridge

Robert Markus, University of Nottingham

John Matthews, Yale University

Claudia Rapp, University of California, Los Angeles

Raymond Van Dam, University of Michigan

Michael Whitby, University of Warwick

Ian Wood, University of Leeds

General Editors

Gillian Clark, University of Bristol

Mark Humphries, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Mary Whitby, University of Liverpool

Cover illustration: Ezra restores the Scriptures after enemy destruction by fire, a portrait
from the Codex Amiatinus (fol. Vr) executed in the 690s at Bede’s Wearmouth-Jarrow
monastery. Drawn by Roger Tomlin

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Antioch as a Centre of Hellenic Cnitnre, as Observed by Libanins

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Neoplatonic Saints: The Lives of Plotinns and Proclus by their Students

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PoUtics, Philosophy and Empire in the Fourth Century: Select Orations of Themistius

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Translated Texts for Historians
Volume 47

Bede

On Ezra and Nehemiah

Translated with an introduction and notes by
SCOTT DEGREGORIO

Liverpool

University

Press

First published 2006 by
Liverpool University Press
4 Cambridge Street
Liverpool L69 7ZU

The right of Scott DeGregorio to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by him in accor¬
dance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro¬
duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo¬
copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data
A British Library CIP record is available

ISBN 1-84631-001-6
ISBN-13 978-1-84631-001-0

Typeset by XL Publishing Services, Tiverton

Printed and bound in the European Union by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow

To my family,

and the memory of my father
and grandparents

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments viii

Abbreviations x

Introduction xiii

Ezra-Nehemiah: Contents and Versions xvi

On Ezra and Nehemiah: Text and Sources xxii

Bede’s Approach to Ezra-Nehemiah xxv

Audience and Date xxxvi

Modern Editions and the Present Translation xlii

On Ezra and Nehemiah 1

Prologue 1

Chapter Headings 2

Book 1 6

Book 2 78

Book 3 154

Appendix I: Notes on Textual Emendations 227

Appendix II: The Ezra Miniature 229

Bibliography 235

Index of Sources and Allusions 249

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The idea of doing this translation was conceived in 1998, when
research on my PhD dissertation at the University of Toronto first
brought me into contact with Bede’s commentaries. In its earliest
stages, the project was undertaken in collaboration with Stephen J.
Harris, and doubtless it has suffered to the extent that he could not
continue to work on it with me. The task has been an enormous one,
and its completion would scarcely have been possible without the
generous assistance I have received from numerous friends and
colleagues. My primary debt is to Andrew Goodson and Carlotta
Dionisotti, whose continued re-readings of the whole manuscript were
instrumental in bringing it to its present state. They uncovered
numerous errors, introduced corrections and many helpful additions
to both the text and notes, and directed me to bibliography that I had
missed. Without their gracious help and admirable learning, this
volume would be much the poorer, and I remain deeply thankful for
their substantial contribution to it. Mary Whitby, Arthur Holder and
Father Bede Kierney, OSB, also read through and commented upon
the entire manuscript, and their many insights and suggestions no
doubt led to significant improvements for which I am grateful. For
their advice on the Introduction and various textual cruces, I owe a
special debt also to Alan Thacker, Calvin Kendall, Lawrence Martin,
Allen Frantzen, Celia Chazelle and Roger Ray. Other experts in
various fields were only too willing to answer specific questions that I
in desperation put to them; thanks are due here to Richard Sharpe,
Paul Meyvaert, Michael Gorman, Trent Foley, Faith Wallis, Richard
Marsden, Paul Kershaw, John Blair, Catherine Cubitt, Mark Vessey,
Roger Gryson, Georges Tugenes, Drew Jones, Scott Gwara, Gordon
Whatley, Michael Lapidge, Andy Orchard, David Townsend, George
Rigg, Brian Stock, Edouard Jeauneau, Michael Herren, John Magee,
James O’Donnell, Lester Grabbe, P.-M. Bogaert, Brother Bruno
Heisey, OSB, and Jennifer Dines. For generous financial support, I
am enormously indebted to Drew Buchanan, Director of Research

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

and Sponsored Programs at the University of Michigan-Dearborn,
who with lightning speed met requests for funding that helped keep
this project afloat. Finally, my work on Bede over the past few years
has benefited enormously from the camaraderie I have enjoyed with
a small group of Bede scholars in whose footsteps I have, in good
Bedan fashion, endeavoured to follow - George Hardin Brown, Alan
Thacker, Arthur Holder, Patrick Wormald, Trent Foley, Faith Wallis,
Calvin Kendall, Roger Ray, and Lawrence Martin. Their work on
Bede has been an inspiration, as has their continual willingness to
share with me their wisdom on all things Bedan. I hope this volume
can in some small way return the favour.

ABBREVIATIONS

(For full bibliographic details of Bede’s works, see Bibliography)

Bede, DLS

DNR

De schem. et trap.

De locis sanctis, ed. Fraipont, CCSL 175

De natura reriim liber, ed. Hurst, CCSL 123A

De arte metrica et de schematibus et tropis, ed.
Kendall, CCSL 123A

De tab.

De tempi.

DTR

Epist. Ecg.

De tabernaculo, ed. Hurst, CCSL 119A

De templo, ed. Hurst, CCSL 119A

De temporum ratione, ed. Jones, CCSL 123B
Epistola ad Ecgbertum Episcopum, ed. Plummer,
Baedae Opera Historica

Epist. Pleg.

Exp. Act.

Epistola ad Plegwin, ed. Jones, CCSL 123C
Expositio Actuum Apostoloriim, ed. Laistner,
CCSL 121

Exp. Apoc.

Expositio Apocalypseos, ed. Gryson, CCSL 121A
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Angloriim, ed.
Colgrave and Mynors

Historia Abbatum auctore Baeda, ed. Plummer,
Baedae Opera Historica

Horn.

In. Cant.

Epist. Cath.

In Ezr.

In Gen.

In Hab.

In Luc.

In Marc.

In prou. Sal.

In Sam.

In Tob.

Rectract. Act.

Homiliae evangelii, ed. Hurst, CCSL 122

In Cantica Canticorum, ed. Hurst, CCSL 119B

In epistolas VH catholicas, ed. Hurst, CCSL 121
In Ezram et Neemiam, ed. Hurst, CCSL 119A

In principiiim Genesis, ed. Jones CCSL 118

In Habacuc, ed. Hudson, CCSL 119B

In Lucam, ed. Hurst, CCSL 120

In Marcum, ed. Hurst, CCSL 120

In proverbia Salomonis, ed. Hurst, CCSL 119B

In primam partem Samuhelis, ed. Hurst, CCSL 119
In Tobiam, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL 119B

Rectractatio in Actus Apostoloriim, ed. Laistner,
CCSL 121

ABBREVIATIONS

XXX quaest.
Mart.

Nom. loc.
CCSL
CSEL
GCS

S outer

In Regum librum XXX quaestiones, ed. Hurst,
CCSL 119

Edition practique des martyrologes de Bede, ed.
DuBois and Renaud

Nomina locorum ex Bead Hieronimi et Flaui
losephi collecta opusculis, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL 119
Corpus Christianorum series latina. Turnhout,
1953-.

Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum.
Vienna, 1866-.

Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der
ersten drei Jahrhunderte. Leipzig, 1897-1941;
Berlin, 1954-.

Patrologiae cursus completus. Series latina, ed.
J.-P. Migne. 221 vols. Paris, 1841-1880.
Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeco-
latina, ed. J.-P. Migne. 167 vols. Paris, 1857-64.
Alexander Souter, A Glossary of Later Latin to
600 AD. Oxford, 1949.

INTRODUCTION

Among the scholarly achievements of the Venerable Bede (d. 735) his
ground-breaking work on the Jewish sanctuaries must rank highd The
bulk of it, comprising three massive verse-by-verse commentaries, is
quite without parallel in the patristic canon, a virtual exegetical trilogy
on the temple in its early historical phases: De tabernaculo, in three
books, on the account of the tabernacle in Exodus 24:12-30:31; De
templo, in two books, on the details of Solomon’s temple in 1 Kings
5:1-7:51; and In Ezram et Neemiam, in three books, on Ezra-
Nehemiah’s account of the post-exilic construction of the second
templet The first two of these commentaries already appear in
Liverpool University Press’s Translated Texts for Historians series;^
the third. On Ezra and Nehemiah, is offered in the present volume,
making the whole trilogy available, finally, to readers in English.

In the larger scheme, this volume adds to the growing list of Bede’s
exegetical works now available in English translation. To date 11 of
the extant 18 commentaries have been translated,"* but this is only a

1 On Bede’s life, see Brown 1987: 1-23 and Ward 1990: 1-18.

2 For the Latin texts, see CCSL 119A, ed. D. Flurst (Turnhout, 1969). The ground¬
breaking nature of these works is evident from the Ordinary Gloss, which derives all of its
commentary for Ezra-Nehemiah and the majority of it for the relevant portions of Exodus
and 1 Kings from Bede: see Glossa ordinaria 1:161-90,2:96-114, and 2:261-305. On the
originality of On the Tabernacle and On the Temple, see also Flolder 1989b: 237; for On
Ezra and Nehemiah, see below pp. xv, xxii. In addition to these commentaries, Bede
composed three homilies on the tabernacle-temple theme: see Horn. 2.1,2.24, and 2.25.

3 Bede: On the Tabernacle, trans. A. Holder, TTH 18 (Liverpool, 1994); and Bede:
On the Temple, trans. S. Connolly, TTH 21 (Liverpool, 1995).

4 These are: Explanation of the Apocalypse, On the Seven Catholic Epistles,
Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles, On the Tabernacle, On the Temple, Thirty
Questions on the Book of Kings, On Habakkuk, On Tobit (twice). On Eight Questions,
and Collectaneum on the Pauline Epistles: there is also a translation of the fifty Homilies
on the Gospel: see Bibliography for details. Additionally, Foley and Holder 1999
contains translations of three shorter biblical works. On the Holy Places, On the Resting-
Places, and On What Isaiah Says. Translations in progress include On the Song of Songs
by Arthur Holder, On Genesis by Calvin Kendall, and a new translation of Explanation
of the Apocalypse by Faith Wallis.

XIV

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

recent development, as its chronology attests. Although the first trans¬
lated commentary appeared as early as 1878, when the Rev. Edward
Marshall published an English version of Bede’s Explanatio
Apocalypseos, the next, Dom David Hurst’s Bede the Venerable: On
the Seven Catholic Epistles, did not emerge until 1985 - over a century
later Work on other translations has since progressed at an impres¬
sive clip, and the developments behind this change of pace are worth
pondering. One is an improvement in resources. Despite increasing
concern over their accuracy, the critical editions of Bede’s commen¬
taries that have been appearing in the Corpus Christianorum since
1960 still represent a step forward, providing scholars a more informed
basis to work from than the inadequate nineteenth-century editions of
Giles reprinted in Migne’s Patrologia Latina.^ Another development
is a shift in scholarly interest, precipitated in part by these improved
textual resources. Bede’s modern reception has been dominated by
his achievements as a historian, his best-known work. The
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, being a universally
acknowledged tour de force of historiographic genius.^ Without
denying this view, more recent scholarship has sought to sketch a fuller
picture, one that registers Bede’s own claim that scriptural commen¬
tary, not history, was his main focus as an author."* The objective has
been not to diminish the historical works but, in Roger Ray’s words.

1 The Explanation of the Apocalypse by Venerable Beda, trans. Rev. Edward
Marshall (Oxford, 1878); and Bede the Venerable: Commentary on the Seven Catholic
Epistles, trans. D. Hurst, Cistercian Studies Series 82 (Kalamazoo, 1985).

2 Bede’s works fill volumes 118-123 of CCSL, which has replaced J. A. Giles, The
Complete Works of the Venerable Bede, 12 vols. (London, 1843-44), reprinted in vols.
90-95 of the Patrologia Latina. The earlier print history of Bede’s works is discussed by
Gorman 2001. CCSL now prints all but two of Bede’s commentaries, On Eight Questions
and the Collectaneum on the Pauline Epistles, which still lies in manuscript. On the prob¬
lematic state of the CCSL volumes, see Meyvaert 1976: 44 and Gorman 2002; 256-58.
Generally, only two editions are viewed by scholars today as reliable; M. L. W. Laistner’s
edition of the Expositio Actuum Apostolorum (CCSL 121), drawn from his earlier crit¬
ical edition of that work published by the Medieval Academy of America; and Roger
Gryson’s edition of the Explanatio Apocalypseos (CCSL 121A).

3 The standard text of the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (hereafter HE) is
that of Colgrave and Mynors 1968, but still useful is Plummer 1896. On Bede’s reputa¬
tion as a historian, see the accounts of Levison 1935; Jones 1946; P. H. Blair 1959; and
Campbell 1966.

4 HE 5.24 (566): ‘...I have devoted myself entirely to the study of the Scriptures’.
The remark is confirmed by the list of works that follows, which prioritizes the commen¬
taries by listing them first. Both the remark and the list are discussed by Ray 1982: 5-6.

INTRODUCTION

‘to recognize that exegesis was the driving force of all of Bede’s
learning and that strong ties link the commentaries to his other writ¬
ings’.^ The appearance of critical editions and translations of the
commentaries as well as the increasing number of studies on them all
suggest that this recognition has finally taken place.^

The study of Bede’s exegesis has thus made substantial strides since
1966, when Gerald Bonner, upon delivering the only Jarrow Lecture
exclusively on an exegetical topic, felt obliged to declare that he would
be ‘dealing with an aspect of [Bede’s] work which does not, generally,
excite much interest’.^ Today interest not only exists but is growing as
scholars uncover a clearer picture of Bede’s exegetical programme -
its sources and methods, its aims and agendas, and not least its ‘strong
ties’ to his other writings. In all these respects. On Ezra and Nehemiah
is an especially illustrative text, perhaps the most so of all the commen¬
taries. As the first and only complete exegesis of Ezra-Nehemiah
produced in the Middle Ages, it is a purposefully innovative work that
proves that Bede’s exegetical talents were not limited to mere compi¬
lation.'^ With no established auctores to follow, Bede had a more
demanding task to fulfil, one that foregrounds his ability to use sources
eclectically and to develop interpretations of his own making. In the
complex multi-levelled exegesis that emerges, several preoccupations
become discernible, from the basic need to explicate literal and alle¬
gorical meanings to the more personalized agenda of ecclesiastical
critique. That agenda is in fact one of the key features of this commen¬
tary; it reveals Bede’s interest in Ezra-Nehemiah - and in the figure
of Ezra specifically - to be anything but disinterested, and in addition
helps cast light on the commentary’s date, envisaged audience, and
relationship to other Bedan texts, not just other commentaries but the
historical works too. But Ezra-Nehemiah is a difficult book, its story
unfamiliar and its textual history complex, so it is best to come to these

1 Ray 1982: 8. See also Holder 1990 and DeGregorio 2002, 2004, and 2006a.

2 Important recent studies include Ray 1982; Martin 1989; Holder 1989a, 1989b,
1990, 1991; Robinson 1994; Meyvaert 1995 and 1997; Gorman 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002;
DeGregorio 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005; Kaczynski 2001.

3 Bonner 1966:1. Cl. Laistner 1939: xi: ‘It is obvious that the one work of Bede that
will always appeal to a wider circle of readers is his Ecclesiastical History of the English
People... Bede's numerous Biblical commentaries will necessarily be of interest only to
a smaller group of students’.

4 For critique of this position, see Ray 1982: 6-12 and 2006; Holder 1990:403-04 and
1991: 144; Thacker 2006; and DeGregorio 1999: 3-15 and 2006b.

XVI

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

topics later, after we have sketched the biblical background and other
essential preliminary matters.

EZRA-NEHEMIAH: CONTENTS AND VERSIONS

The main source for the history of Israel under Persian rule,
Ezra-Nehemiah tells the story of the rebuilding of the second temple
and the restoration of its cult and community.^ Though aspects of its
chronology are dubious,^ the narrative divides structurally into three
well-defined units, each involving a return from exile and projects of
restoration and reform. Ezra 1-6 describes the first return of Jewish
exiles to Judah in 538 BC, authorized by Cyrus the Great (559-530
BC) in order to promote the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.
Led by Zerubbabel and the high priest Jeshua, the exiles upon arriving
erect an altar and lay the temple foundations but in the face of
Samaritan opposition do not complete the temple itself until 516 BC,
in the sixth year of Darius I (522^86 BC). Ezra 7-10 relates the
mission of Ezra, who fifty-eight years later is permitted by Artaxerxes
I (465^25 BC) to lead back a second group of exiles. A priest and
scribe of God’s Law, Ezra returns with the explicit aim of rebuilding
the Jewish community in accordance with the teaching of the Torah,
witnessed above all in his efforts to reform the people and their leaders
from intermarriage with foreigners. Neh. 1-13 forms the third and final
section, the events of which take place some thirteen years later either
in the reign of the same Artaxerxes or a subsequent ruler of this name.
Dismayed that much of Jerusalem still lies in ruin, Nehemiah,
cupbearer at the Persian court, is granted royal permission to return
to the city to organize the reconstruction of its damaged walls. After
overcoming foreign opposition and seeing the project through to
completion, he too shifts his attention to problems plaguing the Jewish
community, and the story concludes with Nehemiah initiating a series
of reforms, targeting unjust taxation, mixed marriages, and lax
Sabbath observance.

While the outlines of the story are straightforward enough, the
textual forms it has assumed are another matter. In modern English
Bibles this narrative is divided into two separate books, entitled ‘Ezra’

1 For general accounts of Ezra-Nehemiah and its place in Jewish history, see Wood
1986: 377-406 and Grabbe 1998: 11-68.

2 Williamson 1987: 48-76; Japhet 1994; Grabbe 1992: 88-93.

INTRODUCTION

xvii

and ‘Nehemiah’ (or ‘Esdras 1’ and ‘Esdras 2’: see below), but in the
ancient canons it formed one book, called ‘Ezra-Nehemyah’ in the
Hebrew Bible and ‘Esdras B’ in the Septuagint (i.e. the Greek trans¬
lation of the Old Testament).^ This account of the story was, moreover,
not the only version. The Septuagint also contains a parallel version
of later date that bears the designation ‘Esdras A’; known only in
Greek, it consists of all of Ezra, some verses from Nehemiah, two chap¬
ters from 2 Chronicles, and some material original to itself.^ Based as
they were on the Septuagint, the earliest versions of the Latin Bible
(called vetus latina or ‘Old Latin’) would accordingly have contained
both Esdras A and B in forms identical to the Greek,^ while the Latin
Vulgate of St Jerome (late 4th century) returned to the story’s orig¬
inal form by translating just the one-book version as it existed in
Hebrew.^' Indeed, in his prologue to that translation, Jerome acknowl¬
edges the existence of two additional books bearing the title Ezra,
namely Esdras 3 (= Septuagint’s Esdras A, called I Esdras in English
Bibles) and Esdras 4 (= II Esdras in English Bibles, a third-century
apocryphal work surviving in Latin but originating from Greek
sources), but these he swiftly rejects as nothing more than ‘dreams’
(somnia).^

Although Bede used Jerome’s Vulgate as the basis of On Ezra and
Nehemiah,^ it is clear from his own statements, which include refer¬
ences to vetus translatio, alia translatio, and alia editio^ that he had his

1 Klein 1992: 732 and Bogaert 2000: 9-13. The spelling ‘Esdras’ is the Greek form
of the Hebrew ‘Ezra’.

2 Myers 1974: 1-5 and Grabbe 1998: 69.

3 Bogaert 2000: 7-8. On the Old Latin Bible generally, see Bogaert 1988: 139-56;
Kedar 1988: 299-313; and Barrera 1998: 349-53.

4 In modern Vulgate Bibles, however, this material is usually designated as Esdras
1 (= Ezra) and Esdras 2 (= Nehemiah).

5 Jerome Prologiis in libro Ezrae, 4.11-5.1: ‘Neither let it bother anyone that it is a
single book that we have published, nor let anyone take delight in the dreams of the
apocrypha, which are the third and fourth books. For among the Hebrews as well, the
words of Ezra and Nehemiah are contained in one volume, and those things which are
not found among them and are not concerned with the twenty-four elders are to be
rejected outright’. For additional comment, see Bogaert 2000: 6-9, 15-17 and Myers
1974:1-5. Since the sixteenth century, Esdras 3 and 4 have been printed in the Vulgate
as part of the appendix of Apocrypha at the end of the New Testament.

6 Bede indicates his preference for Jerome’s Vulgate in his Letter to Plegwin - see
Epist. Pleg. 7-10 (620.111-622.180).

7 See In Ezr. 1.1282; 2.205,1505,1759; 3.251,1350.

xviii BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

eye on other Latin versions of Ezra-Nehemiah too. Bede was of course
fortunate to have lived in a monastery whose library was among the
greatest in the early medieval West,i and it is hardly surprising, espe¬
cially in the light of Wearmouth-Jarrow’s own distinguished
achievements in biblical scholarship, that he would have had easy
access there to different Latin versions of the Bible. Long ago Max
Laistner, in a thorough study of the versions of Acts Bede used in
composing his two commentaries on that book, demonstrated just how
rich the store of biblical manuscripts Bede had at his disposal was and
how varied and flexible his use of it could be.^ On Ezra and Nehemiah
confirms this picture, even if some of the details remain blurred.

For the Vulgate, it is clear that Bede consulted more than one manu¬
script of Ezra-Nehemiah, since at one point he refers to nostri codices,
‘our copies’.^ The phrase calls immediately to mind the three
complete, single-volume Vulgate Bibles or ‘pandects’ that were
produced at Wearmouth-Jarrow during Bede’s own lifetime.'' In the
early Middle Ages, scriptural texts normally circulated as single books
or small collections, not all together in one Bible; that the
Wearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium had the resources and skill to
produce three pandects thus gives some measure of its singularity as
a centre of scholarly activity.^ Only one of these pandects survives
intact; known as the ‘Codex Amiatinus’, it is the oldest and most reli¬
able complete text of the Vulgate in existence today.® Additionally, as
is well known, the prefatory matter of this codex happens to contain
a stunning portrait of Ezra himself - the so-called ‘Ezra miniature’,
which I discuss in Appendix 2. Here we must note that Bede, in
composing his commentary, did not rely on Amiatinus’s text of

1 See Laistner 1935; Ogilvy 1969; Parkes 1982.

2 Laistner 1937.

3 See In Ezr. 3.251-53.

4 The word ‘pandect’ comes from the Greek, where fovSekitis means literally ‘all¬
receiver’; see Halporn 1980; 292-93, who explains that ‘In the Latin of Cassiodorus, the
word pandectes refers to a one-volume Bible, i.e. a Bible containing the entire text of
the OT and NT under one cover’; see also Marsden 1995a; 30. The production of the
three pandects at Wearmouth-Jarrow is mentioned by Bede himself in his History of
the Abbots as well as by the anonymous author of the Life of Ceolfrith - see Bede HA
15 (379-80) and Vita Ceolfridi 20 (395). For comment, see Marsden 1995a: 85-106.

5 On Wearmouth-Jarrow, see the authors cited above in n. 1.

6 See Marsden 1995a: 76-201 and Gorman 2003.

INTRODUCTION

XIX

Ezra-Nehemiah directly.^ This is confirmed by internal disagreement
between Bede’s text and Amiatinus,^ as well as by the external fact
that Amiatinus, created from the start as a presentation volume for
the Pope, had left for Rome with Abbot Ceolfrith in 716, a date, we
shall see, that probably falls some years before the commentary’s
completion.^ The two remaining pandects, by contrast, did remain at
Wearmouth-Jarrow,'^ raising the possibility that Bede’s nostri codices
could refer to them; but like Amiatinus these were massive volumes,
hardly the kind he could handle while composing a commentary.^ In
such a context, the phrase is therefore likely to refer, not to the text of
Ezra-Nehemiah in the three pandects, but to the smaller, more serv¬
iceable manuscripts from which that text was created. Such
manuscripts, assuming a variety of forms and covering a range of
biblical books, would have come to Wearmouth-Jarrow through the
book-buying activities of Benedict Biscop and Abbot Ceolfrith, and
once there would among other things have served as the ‘working
copies’ or exemplars that both Bede and the Wearmouth-Jarrow
scribes would have relied upon in constructing their texts of the Bible.^
From the Old Latin, meanwhile, Bede cites twice from Esdras B
and once from Esdras Ad For these his source was a different pandect,
namely the Codex Grandior. This complete Old Latin Bible, made at
Cassiodorus’ Vivarium in the sixth century, had by the late seventh

1 Cf. Marsden 1998, who notes in Bede’s works ‘no more than sixty per cent agree¬
ment with Amiatinus’.

2 See esp. In Ezr. 3.1480 and the accompanying note.

3 Both Bede and the anonymous author of the Life of Ceolfrith inform us that
Ceolfrith took Amiatinus with him to Rome: see Bede HA 15 (379-80) and Vita
Ceolfridi 20 (395). An exact date for the three pandects cannot be ascertained. Their
completion, however, must fall sometime between 689 and 716, the period of Ceolfrith’s
abbacy. Accordingly, Marsden 1995a: 106, suggests ‘a dating of “before 716”... for
Amiatinus and “c. 700” for the sister fragments’. On the date of On Ezra and Nehemiah,
see below, pp. xxxvii-xlii.

4 See Bede HA 15 (379-80), which explains that Ceolfrith bequeathed the two sister
pandects ‘to his monasteries’. Cf. Vita Ceolfridi 20 (395).

5 Meyvaert 1995: 354, likewise argues that for his commentaries Bede must have
relied not on the pandects but on ‘smaller and more manageable biblical manuscripts’.

6 This assumption, which concurs with Marsden 1995a: 103, would account for those
instances where Bede’s text of Ezra-Nehemiah does overlap with Amiatinus, since both
of these, presumably, would have constructed their texts of Ezra-Nehemiah from the
same store of manuscripts.

7 For Esdras B, see In Ezr. 1.1282 and 3.251-53; for Esdras A, see 2.1759.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

century migrated to Wearmouth-Jarrow, as Bede himself informs usd
Unfortunately, not only has this codex not survived, but just one
complete Old Latin copy of Esdras B exists today, ms. Vercelli,
Archivio Capitolare 22, an eleventh-century manuscript of North
Italian origin.^ On two occasions, agreement between this manuscript
and the variants cited by Bede confirms his reliance on an Old Latin
text of Esdras B.^ In three separate instances, however, the variants
he proposes can be shown to agree neither with Esdras B nor Esdras
A.'* These may represent unrecorded Old Latin variants or perhaps
citations Bede found in other writers.^ Another possibility is they may
attest to yet another version of Esdras B that Bede had in his posses¬
sion. If it is true, as Cassiodorus implies, that the Old Testament text
in the Codex Grandior was Jerome’s revision from the Septuagint,® it
is possible that Bede could somehow have possessed two different
versions of Esdras B - one of them Old Latin, the other Jerome’s revi¬
sion of it.^ Of that revision, termed ‘hexaplaric’ because it was based

1 Bede HA, ch. 15 (379-80). The association of Ceolfrith's ‘copy of the old transla¬
tion’ - which the abbot is believed to have acquired in Rome and brought to
Wearmouth-Jarrow sometime between 678-80 - with Cassiodorus’ Codex Grandior
was made long ago: see Corssen 1883 and 1891; White 1890:289-302; more recently, see
Bruce-Mitford 1967: 8-9; Meyvaert 1996: 835-9; and Marsden 1995a: 115-17. Bede
mentions the Grandior again, in terms suggesting that he had seen it himself, in both
On the Tabernacle and On the Temple, see De tab. 2 (81.1557-82.1570) and De tempi. 2
(192.28-193.52). For an argument that the Grandior never came to Wearmouth-Jarrow
and that any knowledge Bede had of the book was derived instead from Cassiodorus’
Institutiones, see Corsano 1987 and Gorman 2003: 868-72.

2 Fischer 1949: 11, 18; Gryson 1999: 185; Hanhart 1999; Bogaert 2000: 19-21. This
manuscript is still unpublished, and I am grateful to Father Pierre Bogaert for his kind
assistance in checking its text of Ezra for me.

3 See In Ezr. 1.1283 and 3.251-53.

4 See In Ezr. 2.205, 2.1505, and 3.1350.

5 Denter 1962: 99. Denter, however, mistakenly concludes in one case that alia trans-
latio means ‘another explanation’: see below In Ezr. 1.1282 and the accompanying note.

6 At Institutiones 1.14.1,3, Cassiodorus, describing the version of the Old Testament
contained in the Codex Grandior, says that ‘Jerome left it carefully emended and
arranged’ (trans. Halporn 137); scholars have taken this as a reference to Jerome’s hexa¬
plaric revision: see Fischer 1985: 10-18; Loewe 1969: 115-16; and Marsden 1995a: 104,
131.

7 Before translating the Old Testament into Latin afresh from the Hebrew original,
Jerome first attempted to revise the current Old Latin translations of the Old Testament
extant in his day, using the Greek text of the Septuagint as his guide: see Sparks 1970:
515, 517-19.

INTRODUCTION

XXI

on the Septuagint contained in one of the six columns of Origen’s crit¬
ical edition of the Hebrew Bible known as the ‘Hexapla’ (Greek hex,
‘six’), very little has survived, nor do we know how much of the Old
Testament it covered;^ but if Bede did have access to it in the Grandior,
it is almost certain that he would have consulted it.^ It is tempting to
conclude that the latter is the alia translatio, the ‘other translation’,
that Bede mentions; however, he applies that term to the unrevised
Old Latin text of Esdras B as well. Yet in two instances,^ where Bede’s
variants are closer to the Greek of the Septuagint than to the Hebrew
or Old Latin, the possibility that Jerome’s revision of Esdras B, itself
based on the Greek, could have been his source should not be too
quickly discarded, especially since it is unlikely that Bede would have
had a copy of the Septuagint text for that book. Bede’s commentary,
then, may provide small but unique witness to Jerome’s otherwise lost
revision of Esdras B.

Finally, Bede’s utilization of different versions of Ezra-Nehemiah
is valuable in a more general way for the light it throws on his working
methods and range as a commentator. On Ezra and Nehemiah shares
with many of Bede’s commentaries a strong interest in the allegorical
approach to scriptural interpretation, an approach for which Bede
himself is rightly famed.'^ Yet his interests in the biblical text are not,
as is sometimes alleged, dominated purely by allegory. Often they
involve close attention to the litterae sensus and a flair for textual
criticism in particular, evidenced above all in his Retractations on
Acts,^ but as well by the scrutiny devoted in all his commentaries to
grammatical and textual issues. Indeed, the variety of exegetical prob¬
lems addressed in On Ezra and Nehemiah, from considering variant

1 For a range of opinions on Jerome’s hexaplaric revision, see Semple 1965: 231-34;
Sparks 1970: 514-32; Kamesar 1993: 49-58; and Dines 1998: 422.

2 Cf. De Bruyne 1926: 110, who points out that Bede made use of Jerome’s hexa¬
plaric revision of the Song of Songs when composing his commentary on this text.

3 See In Ezr. 2.205 and 2.1505 and the accompanying notes.

4 De Luhac 2000: 91-93, famously dubbed Bede the first to develop a fully articu¬
lated account of Scripture’s fourfold sense. See also Holder 1990: 407-11.

5 Bede composed two commentaries on Acts: the Expositio Actiium Apostolorum,
a verse-by-verse exegesis completed between 709 and 716; and the Retractatio in Actus
Apostolorum, a supplement of corrections and further reflections on various textual
cruces, published much later, perhaps as late as 731; see Laistner 1939: xi-xvii. Bede’s
achievements as a textual scholar are discussed by Plummer 1896: liv-lvi; Meyvaert
1976: 47-51; and Marsden 1998: 72-75.

XXll

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

readings to explaining the history and topography to unfolding the
allegory, reveal Bede to be a versatile exegete, sensitive to the multi¬
faceted exigencies of scriptural interpretation.

ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH: TEXT AND SOURCES

On Ezra and Nehemiah consists of a short prologue followed by three
books of roughly equal length, the first two covering Ezra, the last
Nehemiah. At 155 pages in the CCSL edition, it is Bede’s fifth longest
Old Testament commentary, behind On the Tabernacle, On Genesis,
On the Song of Songs, and On Samuel} As noted, it is also the first
complete commentary written on these Old Testament books and the
last throughout the entire Middle Ages. Cassiodorus, in the
Institutiones, mentions a single homily on Ezra by Origen that
Bellator, the famous Vivarium translator, had turned from Greek into
Latin,^ but sadly the work has not survived, and it is not known whether
the homily belonged to some greater work or whether it represents
the extent of Origen’s writing on Ezra. It is probable, however, that
Origen’s homily would have used the text of Esdras A, for modern
scholarship has shown that the few citations from the Book of Ezra
found in early patristic writings tend to come from Esdras A, not from
the canonical account.^ On the latter, Bede’s is our sole piece of
commentary.

In choosing to write a complete verse-by-verse exegesis of Ezra-
Nehemiah, then, Bede would have no prior tradition of commentary
to assimilate, no established auctores to follow, as he did, for example,
when he wrote On Genesis and On Luke,^ among others. Accordingly,
the main source to which he had to turn in composing this commen¬
tary was the Bible itself. As the source index at the end of this volume
records, Bede cites abundantly from both Testaments, quotations
from which far outweigh his patristic borrowings. Such dependence on

1 Bede’s ten Old Testament commentaries, in order of length, are On Samuel, On
the Song of Songs, On Genesis, On the Tabernacle, On Ezra-Nehemiah, On the Proverbs
of Solomon, On the Temple, Thirty Questions of Kings, On Habakkuk, and On Tobit.

2 Cassiodorus Institutiones 1.6.6.

3 Denter 1962: 53-81,102-03; and Bogaert 2000: 6-7,19.

4 The prefaces to these works reveal Bede’s awareness of the weight of patristic
commentary on these biblical books and, in the case of Luke, his reluctance to tread
over such well-worn ground: see In Luc. Prol. (6.79-10.220) and In Gen. Praef.
(1.1-2.47).

INTRODUCTION

xxiii

Scripture, however, is not due solely to a lack of patristic auctores on
Ezra-Nehemiah. Though a follower of the Fathers, as his favourite tag
reminds us,i Bede did so as a monk who from an early age learned to
read Scripture in a typically monastic way. For the monk, the reading
of Scripture is grounded in lectio divina, according to which a text is
not just read but meditated upon and in this way internalized, digested
into the reader’s or listener’s memory. The goal is to learn scriptural
passages - the Psalms above all - ex corde, ‘by heart’, a phrase used
by St Benedict and employed by Bede in Book 3 in a passage
describing the practice of reading from Scripture during the monastic
Office.^ Such monastic ideas would have been a fundamental part of
Bede’s experience of learning Scripture, and the impact they had upon
his approach to exegesis is evident throughout On Ezra and
Nehemiah? The opening sentences of Book 1 provide a good example.
To illustrate that the temple is a figure of the faithful and that Solomon
prefigured Christ, Bede quotes no less than six verses in rapid succes¬
sion, drawing from both Testaments, each verse adding a further level
of explanation.'* The impression is not one of studied analysis but of
cumulative recollection as Bede moves through the various relevant
texts stored in his memory. Fawrence Martin too has noted this aspect
of Bede’s use of the Bible and compared it, I think aptly, to Jean
Feclercq’s conception of ‘an exegesis through reminiscence’.^
Distinctly monastic in its underpinnings, the phrase in Feclercq’s
usage presupposes a commentator who ‘becomes a sort of living
concordance’,'’ his mind filled with texts from Scripture that can be
recalled and utilized for exegesis.

Of course, in commenting on Ezra-Nehemiah Bede still made use
of what patristic materials he could. He cites from several works of

1 The phrase 'following in the footsteps of the Fathers’ {patrum vestigia sequens)
recurs throughout Bede’s writings as an all-too-modest description of his authorial role:
see, for instance. In Sam. Prol. (10.52-54); In Cant. Prol. (180.501^); Exp. Act. Apost.
Praef. (3.9-10); and DTK 5 (287.86). For comment, see DeGregorio 2006a and Ray 2006.

2 In Ezr. 3.1325-32. See Ward 1991, for a magisterial discussion of Bede’s monastic
approach to the Psalter

3 See DeGregorio 2005, for further examples of monasticism’s influence on the Ezra
commentary.

Ain Ezr. 1.1-21.

5 Martin 1989: xxix-xxx; Leclercq 1961: 76-77. In addition, see now DeGregorio
2005: 366-68.

6 Leclercq 1961: 77.

XXIV

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Augustine, particularly his expositions of the Psalms, draws from
Gregory the Great’s Homilies on the Gospels, Homilies on Ezekiel,
and Morals on Job, and selects useful bits from Isidore’s Etymologies}
It is Jerome, however, whom Bede acknowledges as his most forma¬
tive patristic source. The brief prologue to the text advertises this
indebtedness by mentioning Jerome twice in its short compass, first
quoting from his Letter 53 and then acknowledging his work on the
prophets as ‘the greatest help to us’.^ Jerome commented prolifically
on the prophets and throughout On Ezra and Nehemiah Bede draws
from several different works, particularly Jerome’s On Daniel and his
treatments of various Minor Prophets such as Malachi and Zechariah,
whose narratives contain material that intersects with the story told in
Ezra-Nehemiah. Moreover, he borrows much from Jerome’s On
Hebrew Names, a source used in all his commentaries, and quotes from
Jerome’s Chronicle, a translation and adaptation of Eusebius of
Caesarea’s Greek chronicle of world history. To return to the ques¬
tion of monasticism. On Ezra and Nehemiah contains several thematic
and verbal echoes from the Benedictine Rule and in Book 3 even
mentions the saint by name, the only such reference to St Benedict in
Bede’s exegetical writings.^ For historical writers, Bede relies above
all on the first-century Jewish priest Flavius Josephus, whose sweeping
account of ancient Jewish history in the Antiquities of the Jews covers
many of the same events related in Ezra-Nehemiah.'' Bede probably
knew the Antiquities in Latin, not in its original Greek, and some of
his citations from this work may even have come to him through such
intermediaries as Rufinus or Jerome, as Laistner showed was the case
with the Exposition of Acts} Finally, Bede cites from a number of
works dealing specifically with the topography of the Holy Land,
including Adamnan’s On the Holy Places (which Bede himself had
revised in writing his own work on the subject),® Jerome’s Book of
Places, and the Pseudo-Eucherian On the Site of Jerusalem.

A last point worth noting is Bede’s use of himself as a source,
evident in the references to and quotations from his earlier writings.

1 For these and the references that follow, see the Index of Sources and Allusions.

2 In Ezr. Prol. 17-21.

3 On monasticism’s impact on the commentary, see DeGregorio 2005.

4 See Feldman 1992 and 1993.

5 Laistner 1933: 78-79.

6 See CCSL 175: 247-80, for the critical edition of the work. A translation is avail¬
able in Foley and Holder 1999: 1-25.

INTRODUCTION

XXV

In Book 3, for instance, he concludes his discussion of the Seventy
Weeks mentioned in the Book of Daniel by directing us to his The
Reckoning of Time, where, he says, a fuller treatment of the subject
may be found. Otherwise he borrows tacitly, as he often does, quoting
from his On the Holy Places in his discussion of the topography of
Jerusalem, and elsewhere importing a chunk of exegesis from his On
the Proverbs of Solomon to explicate a verse from that book. Such
instances not only provide insight into Bede’s working methods but
can also help us refine the often ambiguous chronology of the
commentaries themselves - in the case above, for instance, it is clear
that On the Proverbs of Solomon is the earlier work, from which Bede
has recycled an already formulated interpretation of a verse. In addi¬
tion to these explicit borrowings and allusions. On Ezra and Nehemiah
contains numerous thematic and verbal parallels to other commen¬
taries, to the gospel homilies, to the educational treatises, and most
tellingly to The Ecclesiastical History and Letter to Bishop Ecgberht,
whose critiques of Northumbrian episcopacy are echoed in a handful
of striking passages. As noted, these highly critical comments on the
state of Northumbrian religious life in Bede’s own day are a striking
feature of On Ezra and Nehemiah, and it must be asked why, of all the
commentaries, they should bulk so conspicuously in this one. This is
part of a larger question to which we must now turn - namely, what is
it that drew this eighth-century Northumbrian exegete to this neglected
biblical story, and what is distinctive about his approach to it?

BEDE’S APPROACH TO EZRA-NEHEMIAH

Unlike some of the prologues and prefaces to his commentaries, the
short prologue to this work provides little direct insight into what led
Bede to compose the work. The admission that he has complied with
the wishes of Acca, the abbot-bishop of Hexham to whom many of the
commentaries are dedicated,^ is both familiar and tantalizing, and it is

1 In Ezr. Prol. 10-11. Acca was bishop of the Northumbrian see of Hexham from
709 to 731. His role as both sponsor and avid reader of Bede’s commentaries is plain
from some of the prologues (e.g. On Genesis, On Acts, and On Luke)', in return, to Acca
Bede dedicated On Genesis, On Acts, On Samuel, On the Temple, and On Luke, whose
preface contains Acca’s only extant piece of writing - a letter he sent to Bede urging
him to get on with the work in spite of his reluctance to comment on a gospel already
masterfully treated by St Ambrose: see In Luc. Prol. (CCSL 120:5.1-6.78). On Acca’s
life and achievements, see Bede’s glowing account at HE 5.20 (530-32).

XXVI

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

regrettable that the nature of Acca’s involvement is not specified
further.! Qj^ subject of Bede’s approach to Ezra-Nehemiah and
the influence Jerome had on it, we are much better informed. The
Prologue opens with a quote from Jerome’s Letter 53 stating that
Ezra-Nehemiah consists of a single book whose narrative displays one
thing in cortice and conceals another in medulla} Following Jerome’s
metaphor, Bede states that he intends in what follows ‘...to discover,
when the bark of the letter (cortice litterae) is peeled back, something
higher and more sacred in the marrow of the spiritual sense (in medulla
sensus spiritalis)'^ - a clear and early signal to the reader that his
approach to Ezra-Nehemiah will be allegorical. To be sure, the ‘bark’
or literal sense of these books did have a special appeal for Bede, as
we shall see. His main focus, however, was their ‘marrow’ or spiritual
sense, called also the allegorical, mystical or figurative sense, which is
‘higher and more sacred’ because it resides, properly speaking, not ‘in
the text, but in the realities of which the text speaks’.'* Accordingly,
Bede explains that the story told in Ezra-Nehemiah will concern
‘...the Lord Himself and His temple and city, which we are’,^ and in
the final sentence of the prologue he again credits Jerome, this time
for his work on the prophets ‘who themselves had foretold that the
same events which Ezra and Nehemiah wrote about would be carried
out under the figure of Christ and the Church’.^

Of course, the notion that the Old Testament should be read for its
spiritual meaning was a fundamental precept of the allegorical method
of scriptural interpretation practised by the Fathers - a method in
which Bede himself was thoroughly schooled.’ I doubt that he needed

1 One can, however, rule out Acca’s requesting - as he did in the cases of Genesis
and Luke’s gospel - a commentary that would simplify the recondite prose of earlier
exegetes, for Bede was the first to treat Ezra-Nehemiah. Possibly Acca had specific
questions about these books that he wanted Bede to address, as is the case with the two
exegetical letters entitled On the Resting-Places and On What Isaiah Says, which Bede
sent to Acca in response to specific points of biblical interpretation the bishop found
puzzling and asked him to elucidate. These are translated in Foley and Holder 1999:
27-51.

2 In Ezr. Prol. 9.

3 In Ezr. Prol. 13-15.

4 de Lubac 2000: 2.86.

5 In Ezr. Prol. 15-16.

6 In Ezr. Prol. 17-21.

7 See Jones 1969-70: 131-60; and Holder 1990.

INTRODUCTION

XXVll

Jerome to tell him to approach Ezra-Nehemiah accordingly^ But
these early deferrals to this ‘famous translator and teacher of Holy
Scripture’^ were essential to the question of Bede’s own self-presen¬
tation: lacking an existing tradition of patristic commentary to depart
from, he could in a sense use Jerome to create one, proof that he was
following the Fathers’ footsteps instead of his own.^ Nevertheless,
Jerome’s brief remarks on Ezra-Nehemiah in no way amounted to a
complete allegorical reading, something that Bede would have to work
out for himself. To a large extent Ezra-Nehemiah’s concern with the
temple, whose symbolism was discussed in the New Testament and
had been enlarged on by the Fathers,'^ provided a ready framework for
reading the story, and indeed this is where Book 1 of On Ezra and
Nehemiah begins. From Bede’s opening comments on the figurative
meanings of the word ‘temple’ in general and of Solomon’s temple in
particular, it might appear at this early stage that his overall purpose
in On Ezra and Nehemiah would thus dovetail with that of the taber¬
nacle and temple commentaries, which offer extended and detailed
allegorical analyses of their respective structures. To be sure, the three
commentaries do share many methodological, stylistic and thematic
parallels, perhaps none more conspicuous than their viewing the
temple as a multivalent symbol capable of designating simultaneous
levels of understanding.^ But for all the similarities they exhibit that
allow us to view them as a group, and while it is not unreasonable to
imagine that Bede conceived them as such, their uniformity should not
be pushed too far. For On Ezra and Nehemiah is in many ways a unique
work, both in its subject matter and Bede’s approach to it.

It is essential to remember that Ezra-Nehemiah chronicles a later
period of temple history, centred on the events surrounding the
rebuilding of the second temple, the first one (i.e. Solomon’s temple)

1 Cf. Mayr-Harting 1976: 19, who is certainly correct in pointing out that On Ezra
and Nehemiah ‘...probably does not depend on Jerome as heavily as the preface
implies’.

2 In Ezr. Prol. 1.

3 On this point, see DeGregorio 2006b.

4 On the New Testament and patristic roots of the temple topos, see Holder 1989b
and O’Reilly 1995: xvii-xxviii.

5 In his rhetorical manual On Schemes and Tropes, written as an aid to scriptural
interpretation, Bede discusses this theory of understanding, using the temple as his
example: see De schem. et trap. 2.12 (168.265-169.269, 273-79). The passage is quoted
below, p. 97, n. 1.

xxviii BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

having been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. In substance this
account of the temple’s subsequent restoration presented Bede with
markedly different material to comment upon from what he would
encounter in On the Tabernacle and On the Temple. For whereas the
selected portions of Exodus and 1 Kings covered in those commen¬
taries discuss the physical construction of the Mosaic tabernacle and
Solomon’s temple, very little of Ezra-Nehemiah deals with the second
temple’s material architecture, perhaps because it was an exact replica
of the temple built by Solomond Instead, these books depict a more
comprehensive action, an unfolding narrative of which the temple’s
reconstruction is only a small though admittedly focal part.^ Their real
subject is the reconstruction of the Jewish people, who after years in
captivity are allowed to return to the Promised Land to re-establish
themselves as a community by restoring proper cultic and civic rela¬
tions with God.^

That Bede saw this Old Testament narrative as something different
from the lists and descriptions of architectural details he analysed in
On the Tabernacle and On the Temple is evident first of all from the
allegory. Whereas the latter commentaries associate their respective
buildings primarily with the Church as an earthly and heavenly
reality,'' On Ezra and Nehemiah, though it treats these themes too,
develops a further line of interpretation derived from Ezra-
Nehemiah’s larger plot. Here, the narrative’s controlling images of
exile and return, of destruction and construction, of loss and recovery
are read by Bede as symbols not of the Church per se, but of a
particular spiritual condition experienced by its members -
namely, the condition of being separated from the community of the
Church through sin and returning to it through repentance. As he
explains at the start of Book 1, summing up his purpose in the work
as a whole:

It is appropriate, then, that those who were held as captives in Babylonia

as a result of wicked works are freed after seventy years, and that they

1 This, at any rate, is Bede's view: see In Ezr. 2.206-38 and the accompanying notes.

2 Only a handful of verses in Ezra’s ten chapters describe the temple itself or depict
scenes of building: see Ezra 3:8-10 and 6:3-4,14.

3 Wood 1970: 396; Williamson 1987: 79.

4 See esp. De tab. 2 (42.1-43.69) and De tempi. 1 (147.1-148.53).

INTRODUCTION

XXIX

rebuild God’s house and the holy city. For often those who were separated
because of their sins from the communion and society of the Holy Church
and joined to the fate and number of infidels, in turn through the gift of the
Holy Spirit exercise themselves zealously in the pursuit of good works and
in this way regain the fellowship of the faithful, i.e. the Lord’s house and
city from which they were cast out. For it should be noted that the
rebuilding of the Lord’s house after it was burnt down, the restoration of
Jerusalem after its destruction, the return of the people to their homeland
after their captivity, and the recovery of the stolen holy vessels to their
house all typologically denote this one and the same return of penitents to
the Church. But since the prophet Ezra sufficiently explains how all these
things came to pass, I want to relate some episodes from this book and, so
far as the Lord will grant, to expound them according to the spiritual sense
so that it may be more clearly disclosed how those who have perished due
to negligence and error should be brought back to repentance, by how
much grace of God and by how much effort of their own pardon ought to
be sought and procured for the sins they have committed, and how these
same penitents together with those who have recently come to the faith
should build one and the same house of Christ and together look forward
to the ceremonies of its dedication in the future.^

From two key passages in Books 2 and 3,^ we learn that this concern
with the ‘spiritual rebuilding’ of repentance is for Bede the primary
allegorical distinction between the first and second temples. In his
view, while both buildings could signify Christ’s physical body as well
as the Church collectively or the elect individually,^ at the same time
the disparities surrounding their construction denote two different
aspects of Christian experience: if Solomon’s temple, insofar as it
was built rapidly during a time of peace, signifies the ease of initial
conversion to the faith, then the prolonged and arduous labour
that characterized the temple’s later restoration is synonymous
with ‘the great effort’ necessary to atone for sins committed
after baptism, which can be forgiven, writes Bede, only ‘through the
long labour of penance, copious streams of tears, and the unremitting

1 In Ezr. Prol. 68-88.

2 In Ezr. 2.689-707 and 3.787-99; see also In Ezr. 1.1557-91.

3 See In Ezr. 2.487-96; cf. De tempi. 1 (147.7-33).

XXX

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

toil of continence’.^

Compelling though such allegorical differences are, the spiritual
meanings that Bede draws from the Ezra-Nehemiah story are not the
most noteworthy index of the material’s distinctiveness. This belongs
to the literal narrative itself, which Bede recognized had a unique
connection to his own contemporary world. In some sense, of course,
the entire history of Israel was in Bede’s view replete with significance
for the present, for as scholars have shown he purposefully interpreted
his people’s past in Old Testament terms: the English were a new
‘chosen people’ who like ancient Israel had a divine destiny to fulfil.^
Accordingly, his exegesis of the Old Testament played no small role
in shaping the way he narrates that story in The Ecclesiastical History,
his treatment of I Samuel, for example, influencing his view of Anglo-
Saxon kingship,^ and his discussion of the Universal Church under the
tabernacle-temple metaphor underpinning much of what he had to
say about the historical church of the gens Anglorum^ In On Ezra and
Nehemiah, it is similarly possible to detect a number of links to The
Ecclesiastical History - both recount journeys by a chosen people to
lands of promise where they are to build up the house of God; both
tie the success of the ventures to the patronage of righteous kings; both
describe the troubles posed not only by the local inhabitants (i.e. the
Samaritans and the British) but by the elect’s own sinfulness; and both
emphasize the key role played not only by divine grace but by the hard
work of teachers dedicated to spreading the faith and fending off
heresy. But with respect to its topical relevance there is yet another
aspect to On Ezra and Nehemiah that lends it a special resonance -
namely, that the story it treats is quite literally a narrative about reli¬
gious reform, a topic known to have been of vital interest to Bede.

1 In Ezr. 2.702-04. In one of his homilies on the temple theme, Bede puts the contrast
somewhat differently, comparing the temple’s destruction and restoration to ‘the
various events that happen to the Church: at one time she is overwhelmed by the perse¬
cution of unbelievers; at another she is freed from persecutions and serves her Lord
peacefully; at another she is endangered in certain of her members by the snares of the
ancient enemy; at another because of the meticulous concern of faithful teachers, she
recovers those whom for a while she seemed to have lost, chastised by repentance’ - see
Horn. 2.24 (364.234-365.275); trans. Martin and Hurst 2;250.

2 Jones 1969-70; Wormald 1992; Thacker 1983.

3 McClure 1983.

4 Mayr-Harting 1976; 19-22; O’Reilly 1995; xxxiii-li.

INTRODUCTION

XXXI

Ouite apart from their allegorical significance, then, these biblical
books would have had a tremendous pull on his imagination.

In a pivotal 1983 article, Alan Thacker established the centrality of
reform as a theme in Bede’s later writings; drawing mainly on the prose
Life of St Cuthbert (c. 721) and The Ecclesiastical History (c. 731), he
illustrated their potent concern with ‘a general reform in church and
society, the instruments of which were to be an instructed king and
aristocracy, a rejuvenated episcopate and, above all, a reformed
monasticism’.i As a Christian author, Bede no doubt saw these ideas
as having application throughout Christendom as a whole, but it is no
less certain that their immediate field of play was to be closer to home.
In The Ecclesiastical History, for instance, he memorably contrasted
Bishop Aidan’s pastoral zeal with ‘our modern slothfulness’,^ thereby
signalling not only that his ‘gallery of good examples’^ was meant to
provide ‘a collection of models of right living and teaching which
demonstrated the way reform could be achieved’,'* but also that he was
speaking primarily about the slothfulness of his fellow Northumbrians.
The persistence of that slothfulness in Northumbrian institutions in
turn prompted his most expressly reformist and latest extant work, the
Letter to Bishop Ecgberht (734), which took a different approach to
the subject.^ Instead of evoking a past golden age for present emula¬
tion, as he did in the prose Life of St Cuthbert and The Ecclesiastical
History, in the Letter he telescoped the current demise, first tracing its
cause to an episcopate corrupted by avarice and a monasticism diluted
by secularization, and then proposing a very specific list of solutions -
better-trained teachers, a greater supply of priests ordained to admin¬
ister the sacraments, an episcopate dedicated to preaching by example
as well as by word, the creation of more bishoprics as Pope Gregory
had originally envisaged, and the confiscation and reform of monas¬
teries that had abandoned the high ascetic and pastoral standards set
by the earlier generation.^

1 Thacker 1983: 149.

2 HE 3.5 (226).

3 Campbell 1966: 182.

4 Thacker 1983:142.

5 At Epist. Ecg. 17 (423), Bede gives the date of the Letter as 5 November 734; he
died six months later on 26 May 735. The Latin text is printed in Plummer 1896:405-23.
For critical discussion of the Letter, see Brown 1987: 79-80 and DeGregorio 2004: 6-9.

6 See Epist. Ecg. 2 (406), 5 (408-09), 9 (412-13), 10-12 (413-17).

XXXll

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Naturally, such weighty preoccupations with reform left a mark on
Bede’s commentaries too, visible in their manifestly pastoral orienta¬
tion, but also in occasional references to the slothfulness of present
times or the maleficent habits of bad teachersd Yet they surface with
exceptional vividness in On Ezra and Nehemiah because of the biblical
story’s own decided engagement with reform, which time and again
mirrors and merges with Bede’s own reforming agenda, as I have
demonstrated elsewhere.^ The appositeness of scriptural past to
Northumbrian present as Bede perceived it is registered most percep¬
tibly through a series of unique parallels between On Ezra and
Nehemiah and the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht? A cogent example is
provided by his comments on Neh. 5:1-4. Here, the unjust tax imposed
on some poor Jews by their wealthier brethren provides the perfect
occasion for Bede to condemn the tendency of men of religion in his
own day to ‘exact an immense tax and weight of worldly goods from
those whom they claim to be in charge of while giving nothing for their
eternal salvation either by teaching them or by providing them with
examples of good living or by devoting effort to works of piety for
them’.'* This statement matches his criticism in the Letter of an epis¬
copal tribute that Northumbrian bishops had been imposing on the
populace in return for pastoral care which, according to Bede, was
rarely if ever rendered.^ In its treatment of analogous abuses, the
biblical narrative thus naturally intersects with Bede’s own distinctive
interests as a promoter of reform witnessed in both commentary and
letter. There is no need for allegory here since Nehemiah’s zeal to
reform the economic mistreatment of his people is itself the message,
as Bede’s startling plea that ‘some Nehemiah... might come in our own
days’® makes clear. That other parts of Ezra-Nehemiah were equally
paradigmatic for voicing his ideas on reform is evident from countless
analogous remarks made throughout the exegesis, as when he equates

1 E.g. De tab. 3 (96.136-43 and 115.869-75); De tempi. 2 (206.595-207.603); In Reg.
30 (320.1-321.32); In Sam. 2 (122.2254-60). For a full account of reform in Bede's
commentaries, see DeGregorio 2002.

2 See DeGregorio 2004 for a fuller account of the argument that follows.

3 E.g. In Ezr. 1.282-89, 1458-70; 2.597-604, 619-26, 1474-79; 3.66-74, 820-37,
887-99,1866-74. For detailed comment, see the notes accompanying these passages.

4 In Ezr. 3.830-33. Cf. In Ezr. 3.887-99 and 1863-74 for similar allusions.

5 Epist. Ecg. 7-9 (410-12). See Blair 2005:155-56, for further comment.

6 In Ezr. 3.834-35; on the importance of the episode's literal sense, cf. In Ezr.
3.859-65.

INTRODUCTION

xxxiii

the giving of material goods to the departing exiles with the proper
distribution of wealth to support the needs of preachers, or when he
uses the Persian kings’ support of the temple to discuss the need for
Christian kings to use their power to protect the Church, or when he
associates the appointing of Levites to serve in the temple with the
duty of bishops to appoint teachers to preach to the faithful - all
themes at the core of the Letter}

The most salient intersection of past and present reform is seen,
however, in Bede’s approach to the figure of Ezra. That he was of
special interest to Bede and the Wearmouth-Jarrow community is
evident not only from Bede’s commentary but also from the ‘Ezra
miniature’ in the Codex Amiatinus.^ The symbolic potential that this
Old Testament priest and scribe offered that community was no doubt
manifold. Yet, as modern biblical scholars hasten to point out,^ Ezra’s
main role in the canonical story is principally that of a religious
reformer: he journeys from Babylon to Jerusalem with the sacred
vessels and a group of priests and Levites to implement proper cultic
worship in the rebuilt temple, dissolves the mixed marriages and exacts
repentance from the parties involved, and instructs the repatriated
Jewish community through his public reading of the Law (see Ezra
7-10, Neh. 8). Insofar as Ezra thereby leads his people from sin in
Babylon to salvation in Jerusalem, he is for Bede a figure of Christ the
heavenly Priest and Scribe who, journeying into the sin of this world
by becoming incarnate, leads humankind from earthly tribulation to
the peace of the celestial Jerusalem.'* But at the same time Bede,
himself eager to promote reform, develops a more topical and person¬
alized interpretation of Ezra’s priestly and scribal activities clearly
meant to underline their reforming value for the present.^ Regarding
Ezra’s designation as ‘a scribe swift in the Law of Moses’ (Ezra 7:6),
he accordingly stresses that Ezra is both a model teacher and an indus¬
trious textual scholar - like Bede himself! - who single-handedly

1 See, respectively, In Ezr. 1.611-21,2.263-67, and 1.1446-70. Other reform-related
themes include corrupt monasteries (In Ezr. 2.600-04); slothful teachers (In Ezr.
3.66-79); teaching by example (In Ezr. 2.1109-16, 1358-67, 1415-24; 3.1091-95,
1145-51). See DeGregorio 2004, for a full treatment of these themes.

2 On the miniature's significance and relation to the commentary, see Appendix 2.

3 Wood 1970: 79; Grabbe 1994.

4 On Ezra as a type of Christ, see esp. In Ezr. 2.858-912, 1957-97.

5 See DeGregorio 2004, for a fuller discussion of these matters.

XXXIV

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

restored the canon of Scripture destroyed in the Babylonian sack of
Jerusalem^ A key passage in Book 2 connects those endeavours with
the spiritual reform of the returning exiles:

But because when the temple had been burned down and the city of
Jerusalem had been demolished, the holy writings kept there were likewise
burnt through enemy devastation, it was proper that, when the Lord
showed mercy and returned to his people, these writings should also be
restored, so that having repaired the buildings that had been destroyed they
would also have writings from which they would receive encouragement
and learn how they might be inwardly restored in faith and love of their
Creator (my emphasis).^

The reform theme is then picked up and intensified in Bede’s treat¬
ment of Ezra as priest. Critical here is the introduction of the term
pontifex or ‘high priest’, a term not applied to Ezra in the canonical
story.^ Yet Bede’s use of the word is deliberate, though his purpose is
not, I would argue, to designate Ezra as the hereditary high priest,
since in the biblical story that role is clearly assigned to others, as Bede
himself acknowledges.'* Instead, his handling of the term appears
designed to underline Ezra’s status as a figure of pre-eminent religious
authority whose reforming actions are programmatic for ecclesiastics
in Bede’s own time. The most striking examples of this contemporizing
strategy come from Book 2 of the commentary, where the term
repeatedly appears in conjunction with Ezra’s purging the exiles of
their foreign wives and serves in that context to emphasize his role in
leading both people and priesthood to repentance and reform.^ It is
here that we encounter Bede’s revealing definition of the term,
pontifex, id est archiepiscopus (‘high priest, i.e. an archbishop’),® an
equation that makes clear the extent to which in his mind Ezra was to
be a model for contemporary ecclesiastical rulers. In the light of the
troubled situation outlined in the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht, the local,

1 On this see In Ezr. 2.791-821 and the accompanying notes.

2 In Ezr. 2.772-78.

3 For reference to Ezra as pontifex, see In Ezr. 2.890, 1587, 1627,1708,1821,1950;
and 3.1078,1134.

4 See, for example. In Ezr. 2.1743-44.

5 See the citations in n. 3 above.

6 In Ezr. 2.1587.

INTRODUCTION

XXXV

reformist implications of this merger of pontifical and episcopal roles
are inescapable: it is incumbent upon bishops such as Ecgberht, so
Bede implies, to follow the example of Ezra the pontifex by using their
authority and zeal to set straight wayward priests and laymen and
thereby lead society to reform, just as the Letter demanded.

In Bede’s presentation of Ezra as scholar, priest, and religious
reformer, then, as well as in his development of the other reform-
related themes noted above, I suggest we have at least a partial answer
to our question of what it was that drew him to comment on these
neglected Old Testament books. Recognizing their power as an exem-
plum of repentance and reform at both the individual and societal
levels, he was keen to appropriate them as a guide of sorts for dealing
with the pastoral and secular crises declaimed in the Letter to Bishop
Ecgberht. The pastoral and scholarly endeavours of Ezra, the upright
leadership of Nehemiah, the high standards of priestly purity and
ministry implemented in the restored temple - here, Bede was quick
to perceive, were models from the biblical past for what needed to take
place in eighth-century Northumbria if Church and folk were to be
saved from spiritual degeneration. Indeed, we might go further and
say that, in the figure of Ezra himself, at once scholar, priest, and
reformer, Bede found a ready image in terms of which to fashion his
own authorial persona and frame his Ezra-like mission to foster the
regeneration of his people.^ While doubtless not the sole purpose
behind On Ezra and NehemiaEs composition, such reformist strains
illustrate the degree to which exegesis for Bede could grow out of, and
respond to, the same matrix of social, political, and religious concerns
that prompted him to write the prose Life of St Cuthbert, The
Ecclesiastical Elistory, and above all the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht.
These aspects of On Ezra and Nehemiah make it one of the Jarrow
monk’s most innovative creations, proof of the range his exegetical
abilities could take no less than of the cultural work he believed the
genre of biblical commentary itself could effectively accommodate. A
careful reading of this commentary can therefore add much to the
growing sense among scholars today that, as an exegete, Bede was far
more than a compiler or popularizer who merely followed in the foot¬
steps of those who went before. On the contrary, his devotion to the
Fathers who preceded him did not, it is clear, prevent him from moving

1 On the notion of Bede as a ‘Northumbrian Ezra’, cf. DeGregorio 2004: 16-18.

XXXVl

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

in directions of his own making - or rather, from leaving footprints of
his own - relative to the needs of the immediate Northumbrian world
in which he lived.

AUDIENCE AND DATE

If, as the foregoing suggests. On Ezra and Nehemiah was written in
part to promote the reform of the Northumbrian church, can this tell
us something about the work’s original audience and date of compo¬
sition? In my view, expressed more fully elsewhere,^ the commentary’s
reform content does have a bearing on these issues, so it has been
necessary to reserve discussion of them for last.

Let us begin with the question of audience. It is readily apparent
that Bede composed On Ezra and Nehemiah with different levels of
readership in mind. First, in putting together a complete commentary
on Ezra-Nehemiah, Bede was breaking new ground and accordingly
must have sensed that he was producing a work that would appeal to
a wide international audience, comprising professional exegetes and
churchmen throughout Christendom for whom the text would have
filled a gap in the patristic canon.^ Some measure of this level of
reception is attested by the evidence of the Ordinary Gloss, the
standard medieval commentary on the Bible compiled in the early
twelfth century, which relies solely on Bede for its exegetical
glosses on Ezra-Nehemiah.^ Secondly, like all the commentaries,
undoubtedly On Ezra and Nehemiah was written for those whom
Bede calls the praedicatores and doctores - that is, the preachers and
teachers of his own day whose charge it was in turn to instruct the
faithful. Much has been written about this local Northumbrian context
of reception,'' a common view being that Bede, aware he was
addressing priests and monks who lacked his grasp of Latin and
theology, strove in his commentaries to produce ‘simple, accurate
digests of the orthodox teaching... aimed merely to help the intellec-

1 See DeGregorio 2004, for a more expansive treatment of what follows.

2 On the international reception of the commentaries, see Ray 1982: 10-11; Cross
1996; Ward 1990: 80; and Hill 1998 and 2006; on Bede’s attempt to supplement the
Fathers, see Brown 1987: 42^3.

3 See above, p. xiii, n. 2.

4 Bonner 1970 and 1999; Eckenrode 1981; Thacker 1983 and 1992; McClure 1985;
Foot 1989: 46-48; Ward 1990: 78-84; and DeGregorio 1999, 2002, and 2004.

INTRODUCTION

XXXVll

tually slothful English’.^ Certainly the treatment devoted in On Ezra
and Nehemiah to such fundamental topics as the Church, the sacra¬
ments, the Trinity, sin and virtue, and heresy fits with Bede’s attempt
to instruct his novice readers, as does his revealing comment in Book
2, where he acknowledges the need to restate his exegesis of a verse
to make the meaning ‘accessible to the less learned as well’.^ And yet,
in this one commentary at least, the evidence suggests that this could
not have been his only contemporary audience or objective, for the
work’s reform content points to a third level of readership that
evidently had little to do with instructing the rudis lector (‘uneducated
reader’). Indeed, by raising in On Ezra and Nehemiah the very same
body of concerns formulated in the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht, Bede,
just as in that work, was ostensibly launching an appeal not to those
who were beginners in the faith, but instead to a seasoned body of
monastic readers which would have included those in the highest posi¬
tions of power, bishops such as Acca and Ecgberht who, he clearly
hoped, would use their episcopal standing to redress the situation.^
Only in the light of some such conclusion, which aligns well with Alan
Thacker’s idea that Bede was writing primarily for ‘an intellectual and
moral elite’,'* do many of the heavily reformist passages in the
commentary make sense, passages that reveal to us a Bede deeply
immersed in the local church politics of his day. That Bede we tend to
associate with his historical writings, but On Ezra and Nehemiah
proves that such activism permeated his exegetical work as well.

On Ezra and NehemiaEs date, by contrast, is more problematic.
Here alone among Bede’s commentaries, the problem is not a lack of
information, but contradictions among the information we have. On
the one hand, there is Bede’s reference in Book 3 to The Reckoning
of Time, completed in 725, a date that would put On Ezra and
Nehemiah with Bede’s later commentaries.^ On the other hand, there
is Bede’s declaration in the preface to On Genesis that he intends to

1 Carroll 1946: 250. See also Jenkins 1935:170-71: Bonner 1973: 73; McClure 1985:
17-19. For Bede’s own remarks on the challenge of instructing his untaught countrymen,
see especially the prefaces to his Explanation of the Apocalypse and On Genesis - Exp.
Apoc. (233.140-46) and In Gen. praef. (1.18-29).

2 See In Ezr. 2.891-93.

3 See DeGregorio 2004: 23-24.

4 Thacker 1983:131.

5 See In Ezr. 3.155-57. On the date of The Reckoning of Time, see Jones 1977: 241.

xxxviii BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

postpone his exegesis of the rest of the Genesis story until he has
finished examining ‘the book of the holy prophet and priest Ezra’d
Bede’s On Genesis appears to have been produced in stages, the latest
running up to 725, but the preface is believed to be earlier and has been
assigned, rather arbitrarily, to the period 709-7117 Accordingly,
Bede’s remarks there appear to indicate an early date for On Ezra and
Nehemiah, before the year 725 suggested by the mention of The
Reckoning of Time in Book 3. We must ask, therefore, whether other
evidence exists to reconcile these contrary datings.

The case for an early date has been marshalled exclusively by Paul
Meyvaert. In a 1997 article, he claimed that On Ezra and Nehemiah
was composed in two discrete stages, the first predating 720 and
comprising Books 1 and 2, the second postdating 725 and consisting
of Book 3 alone.^ In a more recent discussion, he has suggested that
we delete the reference to The Reckoning of Time from Book 3 on the
grounds that it is no more than a ‘marginal note [that] became
absorbed into the main text’.'* Taking the preface to On Genesis as the
key, he locates the composition of On Ezra and Nehemiah between
the years 711-715.^

1 In Gen. praef. (2.33^5): ‘And I have carried through the work up to the point
where Adam, having been ejected from the paradise of pleasure, entered the exile of
the temporal life. I intend to write some things also about subsequent events of the
sacred narrative, God willing, with the accompanying help of your intercession, after I
have first examined for a while (parum perscrutatus fnero) the book of the holy prophet
and priest Ezra in which, both as a prophet and as a historian, he wrote about the sacred
meanings of Christ and the Church under the allegorical figure of the release from the
long captivity, of the restoration of the temple, of the rebuilding of the city, of the return
to Jerusalem of the vessels which had been taken away, of the rewriting of the Law of
God which had been burned, of the purification of the people from their foreign wives,
and of the people’s conversion with one heart and soul to the service of God, and after
with God’s help, I have made some of these sacred meanings which I have mentioned
clearer to those who are desirous of learning.’

2 On the various compositional stages of On Genesis, see Jones 1967: vi-x, and
Gorman 1996: 303-07. The dating of the preface to the period 709-711, as Meyvaert
2005:1095, most recently assumes, is based on pure conjecture, as is the idea that Bede’s
comments on Gen. l:l-2:3, labelled ‘la’ by Jones (see Jones 1967: vii), ever made up a
separate recension that was issued by Bede at a very early date: see Gorman 1996: 303.
The fact is that we simply do not have conclusive evidence for dating either the preface
or Book la to the precise early dates usually ascribed to them.

3 Meyvaert 1997.

4 Meyvaert 2005: 1093.

5 Meyvaert 2005:1096. This article appeared soon after an article of mine in the same
journal, in which I question Meyvaert’s 1997 arguments for an early date: see next note.

INTRODUCTION

XXXIX

But such arguments are less than compelling. For example, it is
manifestly untrue, as we have seen, that ‘we do not find the appella¬
tion pontifex in the Commentary on Ezra\ a key assertion in
Meyvaert’s argument that the commentary was composed in discrete
early and late stages.^ There is no need to segment the individual books
of On Ezra and Nehemiah into different chronological layers, for it is
clear that it is a uniformly coherent work, as a reading of the capitula
or ‘chapter headings’ at its beginning amply shows. Moreover,
Meyvaert offers no evidence of any kind to support his theory that the
reference to The Reckoning of Time began as a marginal gloss; he
would simply erase the comment from Bede’s text.^ This leaves Bede’s

As my remarks in the next paragraph indicate, I do not accept his more recent claims
concerning 1) Bede’s reference to The Reckoning of Time in Book 3 of On Ezra and
Nehemiah; or 2) Bede’s remarks in the Genesis preface. His conclusions regarding the
phrase hostili clade periistae in the commentary and the couplet atop the Ezra minia¬
ture are discussed in Appendix 2.

1 See Meyvaert 1997: 285, where he claims that the supposed absence of the term
pontifex from On Ezra and Nehemiah ‘was due probably to a revision Bede made to his
earlier work, namely in the commentary as it existed in its first stage’. DeGregorio 2004:
21-23, offers a critique of this argument. In his 2005 article Meyvaert retracts this theory
about successive revisions (see p. 1091).

2 See Meyvaert 2005: 1093. Meyvaert’s claim that the comment is a marginal gloss
is preceded by a comparison of In Ezr. 3.132-57 (which ends with that comment) and
DTR 9, both of which treat the so-called ‘seventy prophetic weeks’ mentioned in the
Book of Daniel. He believes the comparison reveals On Ezra and Nehemiah to be the
earlier work 1) because there, he alleges, Bede follows Julius Africanus’ calculation of
the seventy prophetic weeks (instead of Eusebius’, whom Meyvaert thinks Bede prefers
in DTR 9); and 2) because Bede quotes the Old Latin version of Daniel 9:25, while in
D TR 9 he quotes the Vulgate version of the same verse ‘as was his custom in later works’
(1093). But these are highly dubious assertions. The discrepancy at the end of DTR 9
concerns, not the seventy prophetic weeks, but the year of Tiberius’ reign in which
Christ’s Passion took place: Africanus puts it at Tiberius 15 (following the Synoptic
Gospels) and Eusebius puts in at year 18 (following the Gospel of John). But this has
no bearing whatsoever on how the seventy prophetic weeks themselves are calculated.
For this, Bede always follows Africanus. Accordingly, Jerome and Africanus are paired
as authorities on the chronology of the seventy prophetic weeks in DTR 66 (under AM
3529), while Eusebius is followed on the regnal year of the Passion (at AM 3984).
Moreover, we should expect DTR 9 to treat the topic of the seventy prophetic weeks in
a more lengthy and detailed manner than a few sentences in a biblical commentary,
since Bede’s objectives in the two works are different. Regarding Bede’s preference for
the Vulgate over the Old Latin in his later works, suffice it to note that On the Tabernacle
and On the Temple, two works known to date from later in Bede’s career, cite abun¬
dantly from the Old Latin. As grounds for dating On Ezra and Nehemiah, then, neither
of these claims has merit.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

remarks in the preface to On Genesis. It is certainly possible that his
postponement of On Genesis came as a result of the work taking place
at that time on the Codex Amiatinus, for there can be no doubt that
he was heavily involved in the project^ But this need not mean, as
Meyvaert insists, that he completed On Ezra and Nehemiah at that
time too. For one thing, firm evidence for dating the Genesis preface
to the period Meyvaert assigns to it (i.e. 709-711) is lacking.^
Furthermore, the wording of the preface itself is also less certain than
may seem: it says nothing about finishing a commentary on Ezra, but
describes rather Bede’s desire to ‘examine for a while’ (parumperscru-
tatus fuero) the Ezra story, and to ‘explain... some of its sacred
meanings’ (aliqua ex his... sacramentis... reddidero).^ That this desire
should be equated with completing the full three-book commentary
by the early date of 715 may therefore be doubted; indeed, the preface
says nothing at all of the events of Nehemiah, which constitutes the
commentary’s third book. Accordingly, Bede’s words could just as
well refer to some preliminary and less extensive stage of research he
conducted into the Ezra story while Amiatinus’s text and decorative
materials were being prepared.'^ The Ezra miniature itself, we know,
must have been completed by 716, the year the pandect left
Wearmouth-Jarrow for Rome.^ Hence Meyvaert, keen to see the
miniature and commentary as contemporaneous ‘companion pieces’,
would place the completion of On Ezra and Nehemiah just before that
date, between 711 and 715 - just prior, he makes a point of noting, to
Bede’s commencing work on his commentary on Samuel.® But this
conclusion ignores a key piece of evidence: namely, that in the preface
to On Samuel Bede is forthright in telling us about his recently
completed work: he states that he has just finished commenting on

1 See Marsden 1998.

2 See above, p. xxxviii, n. 2.

3 See In Gen. praef. (2.35-45). Meyvaert’s renderings of these key portions of the
preface are inaccurate: he translates parum perscrutatus fuero as ‘I would like to
discourse somewhat’, and et aliqua ex his quae commemoraui sacramentis apertiora
studiosis, Deo favente, reddidero as ‘My desire is to explain the sacraments I have just
briefly mentioned in a fuller way for the benefit of studious readers’ (see Meyvaert 2005:
00). But this is not what Bede says. The deponent verb perscrutor means ‘to examine
thoroughly’, not ‘to discourse’. Nor does Bede say that he will ‘explain the sacraments’,
but only ‘some’ of them. Finally, there is nothing in Bede’s Latin about ‘readers’.

4 For a correlative reading of the Genesis preface, see Chazelle 2006.

5 See Appendix 2.

6 Meyvaert 2005: 1096.

INTRODUCTION

xli

Luke, but says nothing about finishing a commentary on Ezra.^

The bulk of our current evidence does not in fact favour so early a
date as the preface to On Genesis and the Ezra miniature would have
us suppose. The reference to The Reckoning of Time remains our
strongest lead, and until definitive evidence emerges for treating it
otherwise, the safest course is to follow Plummer, Laistner and others
who put the completion of On Ezra and Nehemiah in the form that we
have it sometime after 125? A date later in Bede’s career surely fits
better with the originality of the project and its relative independence
from patristic authority, features uncharacteristic of his earlier
commentaries such as those on the Apocalypse and Luke’s gospel.^
Moreover, it highlights the link between On Ezra and Nehemiah and
On the Tabernacle and On the Temple, works known to have been
composed in the mid to late 720s and ones that are clearly intended to
complement On Ezra and Nehemiah, the three works together
forming something of a complete whole. Beyond that, I propose that
a later date better suits the commentary’s interest in church reform as
well. The theme, though evident in many Bedan works, is one that is
detected most readily in his post-720s output, such as the prose Life
of St Cuthbert and The Ecclesiastical History, as Thacker has shown,'*
or On the Tabernacle and On the Temple} In this connection, it is inter¬
esting to consider whether the many close parallels between On Ezra
and Nehemiah and the Letter to Bishop Ecgher/zt- parallels, we recall,
that appear only in this one commentary - are perhaps a sign of some¬
thing more, evidence that Bede’s main work on the text took place in,
or at least continued until, the early 730s, when evidently the question
of reform weighed heavily on his mind. Were this true. On Ezra and
Nehemiah, not On the Temple, might possibly be his latest extant piece

1 See In Sam. prol. (10.40-41).

2 Plummer 1896: cl; Laistner 1943: 38. To be sure, Bede’s interest in the Ezra mate¬
rial may have begun much earlier, and the possibility that he projected and even began
work on a commentary early on but did not finish it until several years later should not
be ruled out. The point is simply that most of the evidence we have at present favours
a later date for the work’s completion.

3 On the indebtedness of the earlier commentaries to patristic authority, see
Meyvaert 1976: 44-45 and Robinson 1994: 206-12. For the commentaries on the
Apocalypse and Luke in particular, see Mackay 1999; Gryson 2001: 153-77; Kaczynski
2001; Gorman 2002.

4 See Thacker 1983.

5 See DeGregorio 2002.

xlii

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

of exegesis.^ This may, in fact, explain why On Ezra and Neheniiah is
the one Bedan commentary that concludes with a first-person prayer
- thus linking it, tellingly, to The Ecclesiastical History - or why Bede
himself repeatedly opines near the end of the work that he need not
take the trouble to explain matters in detail, an indication, perhaps,
that he is now on in years and growing tired of writing.^ Of course, the
claim that On Ezra-Nehemiah is Bede’s latest extant commentary
must, in our present state of knowledge, remain speculative. Until
definitive facts to the contrary emerge, the most we can say is that the
majority of our evidence at present favours a later date for the work,
placing the bulk of its composition somewhere within in the latter half
of the 720s.

MODERN EDITIONS AND THE PRESENT TRANSLATION

This volume presents the first complete translation of On Ezra and
Nehemiah into any language. It is based on the Latin text edited by
David Hurst in volume 119A of the Corpus Christianorum. Hurst’s
edition, published in 1969, is the third edition of the work published
in modern times. The first edition appeared in 1563, as part of the editio
princeps of the collected works of Bede published in that year in Basel
by Johann Herwagen the Younger.^ The second followed with another
edition of Bede’s collected works, this one published in London in
1843-44 by J. A. Giles. Giles’s edition of On Ezra and Nehemiah was
in turn reprinted by Migne in volume 91A of the Patrologia Latina.

Though it is hardly the purpose of a translation to re-edit the text
being translated, the poor state of Hurst’s edition has in select places
necessitated some minor editorial modifications. These are indicated
throughout the text in the footnotes and summarized in tabular form
in Appendix 1. Some of these are little more than corrections of
misprints; others involve more drastic emendation where the text
Hurst prints appears to be corrupt. I am indebted here to the gracious
help of Andrew Goodson and A. C. Dionisotti, both of whom spotted
numerous problems in Hurst’s text and made helpful suggestions for
improvement. Dionisotti also was kind enough to consult for me two

1 See DeGregorio 2004: 21-23.

2 For Bede’s prayer, see In Ezr. 3.2108-15, to which cf. HE 5.24 (570). For his desire
to abbreviate his comments, see In Ezr. 3.545-46, 643-46,1383-86, and 1714-15.

3 On Flerwagen’s edition, see Gorman 2001.

INTRODUCTION

xliii

manuscripts of the text not used by Hurst that were readily available
to her in the British Library. In a handful of cases the readings supplied
by these manuscripts offer valuable support for the changes that have
been made.

Unlike the lucid composition of Bede’s historical prose, his
commentaries, the later ones especially, tend to present a more formi¬
dable Latin style, characterized by long flowing sentences and
complexities of syntax whose difficulties often have only been
compounded by the way modern editors of Bede’s exegetical works
have handled them, as Richard Sharpe for one has recently demon¬
strated.^ In some places, therefore, to ensure the readability of the
translated text, it has been necessary to break up Bede’s characteris¬
tically lengthy sentences into smaller units. In general, however, an
effort has been made to reproduce as far as possible the structure of
his sentences. For those wishing to read this volume alongside the
Latin text, two conventions have been employed to facilitate cross-
referencing: 1) the page numbers to the CCSL edition have been
placed in the outside margins of the translated text; 2) the line numbers
to that edition have been specified every twenty-five lines within the
translated text in boldface and brackets (e.g. 725/). References to On
Ezra and Nehemiah, therefore, employ just the book and line number
(e.g. In Ezr. 1.25); all other Bedan works are cited by the book number
(where applicable), followed in parenthesis by the page and line
numbers to the appropriate CCSL edition [e.g. De tab. 1 (5.25)]. A list
of abbreviations for Bede’s works may be found on pp. x-xi.

Scriptural quotations have been translated afresh to reflect Bede’s
usage, though his Latin spelling of biblical names has been replaced
by the conventional modern spellings used in the New Revised
Standard Version (NRSV). In those cases where Bede’s Latin spelling
of a word is germane to the point he is making (for example, when he
points out at the beginning of Book 2 that Jesus and Joshua are in fact
the same name), the Latin spelling is given first followed by the NRSV
spelling in parentheses: [e.g. Jesus (Jeshua)]. Citations from the
Psalms give the NRSV numbering first, followed (where necessary) by
the Vulgate numbering in parentheses. Text quoted from Ezra-
Nehemiah appears always in boldface; all other quotations from
Scripture are represented in italics. Citations from classical and

1 Sharpe 2005.

xliv

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

patristic authors are given in quotation marks. Biblical, classical, and
patristic sources have been listed in the notes as well as in the Index
of Sources and Allusions; while many of these are recorded by Hurst
in his edition, several others are identified here for the first time and
so give the present volume an additional utility. More than previous
translations, I have also attempted in the notes to record important
parallels, echoes, and generally helpful passages elsewhere in Bede’s
writings, in order to bring out the intertextual dimensions of his
oeuvre. Finally, references to primary and secondary works used in
this volume are given in abbreviated form in the notes, supplemented
by complete citations in the Bibliography.

ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

PROLOGUE

When the famous translator and teacher of Holy Scripture Jerome was [237]
briefly running through the books of that same Scripture in a letter to
a friend and summarily treating the contents of each, he said Ezra and
Nehemiah (that is to say, the helper and the consoler from the Lord),
are the subject of a single book} They restore the temple and raise up
the walls of the city. [In this book,] the whole crowd of the people
returning to their homeland, and the description of Israel’s priests,

Levites and proselytes, and even the works of the walls and towers
divided up between individual families - all these display one mean ing
in the bark and retain another in the marrow.^ And so, most reverend
Bishop Acca,^ complying diligently with your exhortations, I have put
my effort into considering this volume, trusting in our true Helper and
Consoler, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that he may be gracious
to give us [the ability] to find, when the bark of the text is peeled back,
something deeper and more sacred in the marrow of the spiritual
sense,'* since by prophetic figures but in a clear way it designates the

1 In Hebrew, the name Ezra means ‘helper’, Nehemiah ‘Yahweh comforts': cf. In
Ezr. 2.877-78 and 3.5-6. ‘...[A]re the subject of a single book’ = in uno volumine
narrantur. literally, ‘are related in one volume’. The ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
versions of the Bible Bede knew did not treat Nehemiah as a separate book, as
Protestant Bibles do today. Thus at In Ezr. 1.547 Bede refers to the Nehemiah material
as coming ‘in the second part of the book’ {in secunda parte libri). For more on this, see
the recent discussion of Bogaert 2000: 9-11.

2 Jerome Epistida 53 (CSEL 54:461.19-462.4).

3 Acca, abbot and bishop of the Northumbrian see of Hexham from 709 to 732; for
discussion of his involvement with Bede’s commentaries, see Introduction, p. xxv, n. 1,
and p. xxvi, n. 1.

4 Though Bede is credited as the first to articulate a fully developed account of the
medieval notion of Scripture’s four senses (historical, allegorical, tropological, and
anagogical), in this commentary he often distinguishes, as he does here, only two levels
of interpretation: the literal, which contains the historical details of the biblical narra-

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Lord himself and his temple and city, which we are. In this work the
greatest help to us was the aforementioned teacher of the Church,
Jerome, in his explanation of the prophets,^ who themselves had fore¬
told that the same events which Ezra and Nehemiah wrote about
would be carried out under the figure of Christ and the Church.

CHAPTER HEADINGS^

[238] 1. At the beginning of his reign, Cyrus brings an end to the captivity

of the people of God and, with the return of the holy vessels, orders
the people to go up to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

2. The number of those who returned to Judea under the leadership
of Zerubbabel and Jeshua is described, along with the sum of money
that the leading men of the fathers offered for the rebuilding of the
temple.

3. In the seventh month, the ancient people are brought together in
Jerusalem and, once the altar is built, they hold the Feast of
Tabernacles and thereafter the other feasts of the Lord.

4. In the second year of their coming, the house of the Lord is begun
but is prevented from being completed by the people of the land.

5. The Samaritans write letters of accusation to the kings of the

live; and the spiritual, also called the allegorical, mystical, figurative, typic, or higher,
which holds the theological truths beyond the literal meaning of the text or, to use Bede’s
metaphor here, those contained within its bark. On the classical and patristic roots of
this metaphor, see de Lubac 2000:2.59. For discussion of Bede’s exegetical practice, see
Jones 1969-70: 131-51; Robinson 1994; Brown 1987: 42-61; Ward 1990: 41-87; and
Holder 1989a and 1990. For Bede’s most detailed remarks on the four senses of
Scripture, see De tab. 1 (25.781-811) and In Cant 3 (260.610-25).

1 in explanatione prophetarum. In addition to his other accomplishments, Jerome
was the foremost commentator on the prophets among the Fathers, producing exeget¬
ical tracts on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the minor prophets. Given his use
of the singular noun explanatione, Bede may be referring here to a single work of
Jerome’s, such as his commentary on the minor prophets, which Bede uses liberally in
On Ezra and Nehemiah. However, as he also relies on Jerome’s work on Isaiah, Daniel,
and Jeremiah, the reference may be more general in scope, alluding to Jerome’s work
on the prophets as a whole.

2 The following chapter headings (capitula) are Bede’s compositions. As the tally of
his works listed at the end of the Ecclesiastical History records {HE 5.24), Bede drafted
such capitula for several Old and New Testament books. For discussion, see Meyvaert
1995.

PROLOGUE

Persians and prevent the work of the temple through an edict of royal
letters.

6. At the exhortation of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah,
Zerubbabel and Jeshua build the temple of God. Tattenai governor
beyond the river asks King Darius what should be done about this.

7. After reviewing Cyrus’s letters, Darius orders that the temple be
rebuilt, a task completed in the sixth year of his reign.

8. The descendants of the exiles dedicate the house of God and cele¬
brate the Feast of the Passover.

9. Ezra the priest comes up from Babylon possessing gracious letters
from King Artaxerxes to all the guardians of the public treasury
beyond the river, in which he paid respect both to Ezra and the temple
of the Lord.

10. The number of those who came up with Ezra and how they
obtained the Lord’s assistance on their journey by fasting and praying.

11. Ezra weighs out the donations of the king and his counsellors that
were to be offered in Jerusalem to the chief priests, who offer holo¬
causts to the Lord when they arrive there.

12. Hearing that the people of Israel have been polluted by foreign
wives, Ezra takes up the garb of a mourner and begs pardon for their
crime from the Lord.

13. As Ezra prays and weeps, the people too are turned to penance [239]
and with unanimous consent are separated from foreign wives.

14. The number of those who cast out the foreign wives they had
married.

15. When Nehemiah, cupbearer of King Artaxerxes, hears of the
distress of those who were at Jerusalem, he fasts, prays and implores
the Lord’s mercy.

16. Having received the permission and letters of the king, Nehemiah
comes to Jerusalem to rebuild the city; from this year are counted the
seventy weeks of years that the angel foretold to Daniel, and which
extend up to the time of the Lord’s passion.

17. Arriving in Jerusalem, Nehemiah ponders at night the destruction
of the walls and in the morning, explaining the reason for his coming
there, strengthens the heart and hands of the people to rebuild.

18. The wall, towers, and gates of Jerusalem are rebuilt at the begin¬
ning of the high priesthood of Eliashib.

19. Sanballat and Tobias deride the builders but are treated with
contempt; they prepare to make war but are driven back by prayers

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

and weapons.

20. The builders, all armed and prepared for battle, thus persist in the
rebuilding of the walls.

21. When the people are stirred into a tumult due to hunger and
poverty, Nehemiah entreats the nobles and magistrates not to exact
interest from their brethren but rather to give money on their behalf.

22. Nehemiah expounds how much devotion he himself has shown the
people.

23. Sanballat and his allies try to divert Nehemiah from building the
wall, even hiring plotters within the community against him; but once
he finds these out, the city wall is brought to completion.

24. Once the city of Jerusalem is rebuilt the Gentiles grow afraid; but
Nehemiah counts the singers and appoints guardians for the gates.

25. To be able to find suitable inhabitants for the city, he rereads the
census book of those who were the first to come up from Babylon to
Judea.

[240] 26. In the seventh month, the people are gathered in Jerusalem, and

they listen with attentive ears as Ezra reads the law of Moses.

27. They hold the Feast of Tabernacles, with Ezra reading God’s law
to them each day.

28. When the Feast of Tabernacles is over, they come together once
more to declare their faith, read, and pray before the Lord.

29. The prayer or confession of Ezra, in which he begs the Lord to
recall the pact that he had with their fathers.

30. The leaders together with the people strike a covenant and put it
in writing, that they will observe all the Lord’s commandments and
promote the ceremonies of his house.

31. The leaders from the children of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi reside
in Jerusalem together with a tenth of the rest of the people.

32. The offspring of the high priest Jeshua and those who at that time
were leaders of the priests and Levites are set forth.

33. The city of Jerusalem is dedicated with a joyous feast, and the
watchmen in charge of the storerooms of the treasury for the sacred
offerings are listed.

34. All foreigners are separated from Israel, and the portions of the
Levites and the first-fruits of the priests are put in the treasury of the
Lord’s house.

35. Upon his return from Babylon to Jerusalem, Nehemiah once again
purges the treasuries of the vessels of the Gentiles and returns to that

PROLOGUE

place those articles proper to the house of the Lord.

36. He also takes assiduous care that the Sabbath rest should not be
violated by the trade of the Gentiles.

37. He also purges the Jews from foreign wives and appoints orders of
priests and Levites, each in his own ministry. May he be remembered
in the memory of his God with favour.

BOOK ONE

[241 ] It is evident to all readers that in the Holy Scriptures each one of
the elect and all the Church together (i.e. the whole body of the just)
are customarily called God’s house or temple, because God deigns to
dwell in the hearts of those who believe and hope in him and love him,
according to what he himself says: If anyone loves me, he will keep my
word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make
our abode with him} Hence the Apostle also says: The temple of God
is holy, and you are itf and in the epistle to the Hebrews: And Moses
was faithful as a servant in all his house, testifying to what would be said.
But Christ is faithful as a son in his house. And we are this house, if we
holdfast the confidence and glory of hope unto the end.^ King Solomon
built a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem'* as a symbol of this house or
spiritual temple, for Solomon, which means ‘peaceful’,^ himself
fittingly contains a figure of him about whom the prophet proclaims:
Flis empire will be multiplied, and there will be no end of peace.^ The
Apostle of the Church, when writing about the Gentiles, said
regarding him: And he came and preached peace to you that were far
away and peace to those that were near. For through him we both have
access to the Father in one spirit.'^ Furthermore, the fact that Solomon
built the temple in seven years but finished and dedicated it in the
eighth® signifies that during all the time of this world, which is encom-

1 John 14:23.

2 1 Cor. 3:17.

3 Heb. 3:5-6; cf. Num. 12:7.

4 1 Kings 5:1-7:51; 2 Chron. 2:1-4:22. As monarch of the Israelites, Solomon was
responsible for the construction of the first Jerusalem temple, which his father King
David had intended to build (see 2 Kings 7:1-29). Bede devoted an entire commentary,
De templo, to the biblical account detailing the first temple’s construction.

5 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:138.5); cf. Bede Horn. 2.24 (364.231-34).

6 Is. 9:7.

7 Eph. 2:17-18.

8 1 Kings 6:38, 8:22-63.

BOOK ONE

passed in seven days,^ the Lord is building a Church by gathering /25/
the faithful to its heavenly edifice. Hereafter, in the life to come when
the glory of his resurrection is made visible, he brings it to its perfect
state and raises it up into the joy of immortal life in the everlasting
vision of his glory. For since he himself rose again from the dead on
the eighth day (i.e. after the seventh day, the Sabbath), the time of our
resurrection is also rightly expressed by the number eight.^

Now the fact that later on some of the temple buildings began to
deteriorate due to their great age but were soon restored and brought
to their former state by the urging of the kings and priests who lived
at that time, signifies the daily and most trivial sins of the faithful. [242]
About such people Solomon says Seven times the righteous man falls
and rises again? By the Lord’s gift, they are likewise corrected by their
own daily diligence through the examples or exhortations of the right¬
eous who went before, as though through the industry of God’s kings
and priests. For all the perfect in the Church are deservedly called
kings and priests since they are members of the most high priest and
king, insofar as they have learned to rule themselves well and to offer
God a living sacrifice with their bodies.'^

The fact that afterwards, through mounting evils, this same temple
was profaned by the filth of idols^ and ultimately destroyed and burned
down by the Chaldeans® signifies the more weighty faults of those who,
though they were united with the members of the Holy Church
through the confession of the right faith and the sacrament of the
washing of salvation,^ nonetheless were cast down once more from the

1 On the notion of the time of the world encompassing a period of seven days, which
Bede draws from his The Reckoning of Time, see below In Ezr. 1.1073-74 and the
accompanying note.

2 Cf. the similar passages at In Gen. 2 (119.1654-58) and especially Horn. 2.24
(364.240-365.250), which also discusses the literal and spiritual meanings of the temple.
The association of the number seven with rest and eight with resurrection comes from
Augustine: see Contra Faustum Manichaeorum 12.19 (CSEL 25:347.13-348.15). The
allegorical significance of numbers figures prominently in Bede’s exegesis: for discus¬
sion, see Jones 1969-70: 166-74, and Meyer and Suntrup 1987.

3 Prov. 24:16.

4 Cf. Rom. 12:1. For similar analogies between kings and priests and the perfect in
this commentary, see In Ezr. 1.934-38,1506-10,1657-62; also De tempi. 2 (207.607-10).

5 2 Kings 21:2-3; 2 Chron. 33:7.

6 2 Kings 25:9; 2 Chron. 36:19.

7 sacramentum lauacri salutaris. As early as St Paul’s epistles (e.g. Eph. 5:26; Titus
3:5), baptism was referred to as a ‘bath’ or ‘washing’ (lavacrum), evidently because the

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

foundation of the faith by the deception of evil spirits and were
consumed in the flame of vices. After the temple had been demolished
and the city of Jerusalem likewise destroyed, its people were deported
to Babylonia,^ 750/ but seventy years later,^ when they had done
penance for their iniquities, they were sent back to their homeland
through the Lord’s mercy and also with great labour restored the
temple and the holy city.^ Figuratively, this designates those who,
having been deceived by the devil, not only destroy the sincerity of the
faith and the integrity of good works, but also through the bitterness
of their sins seem to be like Gentiles and publicans, according to that
saying of the Lord: And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to you
as a pagan or a tax-gatherer^ Yet some of these people, regaining their
senses through the regard of divine grace, return to the Church when
they are pricked in the heart^ by the illumination of the Holy Spirit
and begin again to hear and keep the precepts of the divine law which
they had abandoned. For there are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which
the prophet Isaiah enumerates and clearly distinguishes,'’ but the sum
of all the divine law is contained in the ten commandments, and seven
multiplied by ten is seventy. It is appropriate, then, that those who
were held as captives in Babylonia as a result of wicked works are freed
after seventy years, and that they rebuild God’s house and the holy

main form of baptism in early times was immersion of the catechumen in water. The
word ‘baptism’, in fact, is derived from the Greek verb baptizein ‘to dip or immerse’.
Cf. In Ezr. 1.1767-69.

1 2 Kings 24:10-16; 2 Chron. 36:10-13.

2 Bede derives this number from Jer. 29:10 (cf. 2 Chron. 36:21 and Zech. 1:12); while
he no doubt believed this figure to be accurate, it does not correspond to historical fact,
for the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 587 BC and the Jews began to rebuild it in
538 BC, i.e. only 49 years later. Cf. below. In Ezr. 1.1431.

3 These events are the subject of Ezra-Nehemiah.

4 Matt. 18:17.

5 compuncti: cf. In Ezr. 3.67. Originally a medical term used to describe the physical
pain of illness, the Latin compunctio (from cum ‘with’ + pungere ‘to prick or puncture’)
came in ecclesiastical and monastic usage to express the spiritual pain resulting from sin
and concupiscence. The ‘prick’ of compunction is felt in the heart, the compunctio cordis
mentioned in the New Testament (see Acts 2:37) and in a range of patristic and monastic
texts, Cassian’s and Gregory the Great’s foremost among them: see Sullivan 1961 and
McEntire 1987.

6 Is. 11:2-3. These seven gifts of the Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, forti¬
tude, knowledge, godliness, and fear of the Lord. Bede mentions these gifts again in De
tempi. 2 (197.198-201).

BOOK ONE

city. For often those who were separated because of their sins from
the communion and society of the Holy Church and joined to the fate
and number of infidels, in turn through the gift of the Holy Spirit exer¬
cise themselves zealously in the pursuit of good works and in this way
regain the fellowship of the faithful, i.e. the Lord’s house and city from
which they were cast out. For it should be noted that 1151 the rebuilding [243]
of the Lord’s house after it was burnt down, the restoration of
Jerusalem after its destruction, the return of the people to their home¬
land after their captivity, and the recovery of the stolen holy vessels
to their house all typologically denote this one and the same return of
penitents to the Church. But since the prophet Ezra sufficiently
explains how all these things came to pass, I want to relate some
episodes from this book and, so far as the Lord will grant, to expound
them according to the spiritual sense so that it may be more clearly
disclosed how those who have perished due to negligence and error
should be brought back to repentance, by how much grace of God and
by how much effort of their own pardon ought to be sought and
procured for the sins they have committed, and how these same peni¬
tents together with those who have recently come to the faith should
build one and the same house of Christ and together look forward to
the ceremonies of its dedication in the future.

[1:1-2] In the first year^ of Cyrus king of the Persians, in order that
the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the
Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he made
a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also in writing
declared: ‘Thus says Cyrus king of the Persians: the Lord, the God of
heaven, has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he himself
has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea’.

The ancient accounts,^ with which the writings of the prophet Daniel

1 This refers to the ‘first year’ of Cyrus’s reign not in Persia but in Babylon, that is,
to the year 538 BC: see p. 10, n. 2 below. Bede, however, appears not to have known
this: see In Ezr. 2.465-68 and the accompanying note.

2 veteres historiae. Bede may have borrowed this phrase from Jerome, who employs
it in his On Daniel, see In Danielem 3.10.21 (CCSL 75A:896.797). The accounts in ques¬
tion are most likely those of the Jewish priest and scholar Flavius Josephus (c. 35-100),
who in Books 10 and 11 of his Antiquities of the Jews discusses the Persian defeat of the
Babylonians and the subsequent liberation of the Jews and their repatriation in Judea:
see Antiquitates Judaicae 10.11.1-4. This work of Josephus, which in twenty books
relates the history of the Jews from Creation to the mid-first century, was a major source
for Jewish history in the Middle Ages, and Bede uses it liberally throughout On Ezra

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

agree,^ relate that Cyrus king of the Persians,^ having joined together
with his ally Darius king of the Medes,^ destroyed the kingdom of the
Babylonians, after killing Belshazzar, the last of their kings, and razing
the city and laying it waste. This Cyrus, no doubt realizing that the
kingdom had been handed over to him by the God of Israel, 7100/ as
soon as he conquered the kingdom which had captured the Israelites
and was oppressing them in slavery, gave them permission to return
to their homeland and to rebuild the house of their God that had been
destroyed by fire there. He communicated this declaration of freedom
not only by word of mouth to those who were present there, but
dispatched letters as well throughout all the provinces of his kingdom
to those who lived further away, publicly acknowledging that he who
is the God of Israel is the true Lord and God of heaven and the Creator
of all kingdoms.

The holy prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah clearly foretold that all these
events would thus come to pass. Jeremiah even predicted the number

and Nehemiah and in his other commentaries. Josephus wrote in Greek but Bede, like
other medieval writers, probably knew the text in the Latin translation prepared by
Cassiodorus at Vivarium, though Laistner 1935:246^7, speculated that Bede may have
known and used the Greek original.

1 Dan. 5:30; cf. Jerome In Danielem 2.5.30-31 (CCSL 75A:827.189-828.204).

2 Cyrus the Great (600-530 BC) was the founder of the Persian Empire, which he
ruled as king from 559 to 530. In 553, then acting as prince of Anshan, a vassal kingdom
of the Medes, he rebelled against the Median king Astyages and united the Medes and
the Persians into a single kingdom; seven years later he began a campaign against
Babylonia, which ended in his conquest of Babylon in 539/538 and the subsequent
release of the Jewish exiles: see McKenzie 1965:167. These events are reported in detail
by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus {Histories 1.123-30, 189-91). In the Old
Testament, Cyrus appears as the hope of restoration of Judah and Jerusalem; for more
on this, see below, p. 12, n. 6.

3 The Medes as a people take their name from Media, an ancient Iranian kingdom
that rose to power in the seventh century BC. They were under Assyrian domination
until they united with the Babylonians in 625 BC and helped defeat the Assyrian empire,
though later they were allied to the Persians and fought against the Babylonians: see
Bilkes 2000b. In the table of nations in Gen. 10:2, the Medes are listed with the children
of Japheth: cf. 1 Chron. 1:5. Their leader Darius, mentioned here, is not to be confused
with the famous Darius king of Persia, who ruled the Persian Empire two generations
after Cyrus and whom Bede mentions later. The earlier 'Darius the Mede’ who gained
control of the Chaldean kingdom after Belshazzar’s death is mentioned in Daniel as the
king who put Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan. 6:14-17) and under whom this prophet had
his famous vision of the 70 weeks of the years (Dan. 9). These references put this Median
Darius between the reign of Belshazzar and that of the emperor Cyrus the Great (cf.
Dan. 5:30-6:1, 28).

BOOK ONE

of years in which they would be held captive in Babylonia and when
they would be brought back to their homeland, whereas Isaiah,
without any of the obscurities of prophetic speech, even revealed the
name of King Cyrus, by whom they were to be freed from slavery,
brought back to their homeland, and by whose permission they would [244]
restore the temple. For Jeremiah says: Thus says the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel, to all that I carried into exile from Jerusalem to
Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them. For thus says the Lord of
Hosts, when the seventy years have begun to be fulfilled in Babylon, I
will come to you and raise up my voice over you and bring you back to
thatplace.^ And Isaiah says: This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer
and Maker from the womb: T am the Lord, who make all things;’^ and
a little farther on: I who say to the deep: ‘Be desolate, and I will dry up
your rivers’. I who say to Cyrus: ‘You are my shepherd, and shall
perform all my will’. I who say to Jerusalem: ‘You shall be built’; and
to the temple: ‘Your foundation shall be laid’.^ 7125/ This is what the
Lord says to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of
so that I may subdue nations before him and turn the backs of kings,
and I will open doors before him and gates will not be shut: I will go
before you and will level the great ones of the earth; I will knock down
the gates of bronze and break through bars of iron. I will give you
hidden treasures and secrets of secrets, so that you may know that I who
call your name am the Lord, the God of Israel. For the sake of Jacob
my servant and of Israel my elect, I have summoned you by name and
have made you like [them], though you have not known me.'^ I am the
Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I have armed
you, and you have not known me.^ From this prophecy of Isaiah it
ought to be believed that King Cyrus greatly loved the children of
Israel and freed them from captivity and sent them home and

1 Jer. 29:4-5,10.

2 Is. 44:24.

3 Is. 44:27-28.

4 Is. 45:4. The Latin reads, Assimilavi te et non cognovisti me. The phrase assimilavi
te does not appear in the Hebrew as we have it today, while the Septuagint (the Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible) has prosdexomai se T will accept you’ - that is, as a
chosen servant like Jacob and Israel, who are mentioned previously in the same verse.
In interpreting this verse below, however, Bede appears to alter the context slightly and
to reinterpret assimilavi te to mean not T have made you like them’ but T have made
you like him’, i.e. made Cyrus an image of Christ: see below. In Ezr. 1.148-56.

5 Is. 45:1-5.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

commanded them to rebuild the Lord’s temple, because he had heard
what their prophets had foretold through the spirit of God concerning
Cyrus’ kingdom and the destruction of the Babylonians’ kingdom^
For these prophets had specifically described the kind of assault by
which Cyrus seized Babylon, of whom Isaiah says: I who say to the
deep: Be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers'^ but Jeremiah: That
very wall of Babylon, very broad though it is, shall be utterly broken
down, and her high gates shall be set on fire? For the accounts tell that
the enemy entered Babylon via the dry and abandoned bed of the
River Euphrates, which flows through the middle of the city but which
had been diverted and emptied into many channels.'^ Let this much be
said briefly concerning the historical sense.

According to the mystical senses, however. King Cyrus represents
the Lord Saviour both in name and deeds. This we have learned not
from our own surmise /150/ but from Isaiah’s very clear words, in which
he said in the person of the Lord: I have made you like [him], though
[245] you have not known me? For God made Cyrus like his Son - although
Cyrus himself by no means knew the God who did this - firstly because
he deigned to call him his anointed,® then because he arranged long
before he was born that he should be called Cyrus, which means ‘heir’
Indeed, this word well suits him to whom God the Father says. Ask
me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,^ and about whom

1 Cf. Jerome In Esaiam 12.45 (CCSL 73A:504.39-506.90).

2 Is. 44:27.

3 Jer. 51:58.

4 Cf. Herodotus Histories 1.191, which reports that at the siege of Babylon Cyrus
ordered his men to drain part of the Euphrates by digging a small canal and siphoning
the water into a nearby lake, thus allowing his forces to enter the city through the
partially emptied riverbed. These details were available to Bede in such intermediate
Latin sources as Orosius Historiarum adversos paganos 2.6 (CSEL 5:94.17-96.6).

5 Is. 45:4. See above p. 11, n. 4, for comment.

6 Is. 45:1. In this verse, Cyrus is called christo meo ‘my anointed,’ the Greek christos
translating the Hebrew mastah ‘anointed one, messiah’. In Old Testament usage, this is
a title reserved for the kings of Judah and Israel whose kingdom is a figure of Christ
(see Juel 2000), and it may therefore seem strange that Cyrus - who, though said to have
revered the God of Israel, nevertheless remained a heathen - is called by this name.
However, as Bede goes on to clarify, Cyrus resembles Christ insofar as he discharges
the messiah-like role of freeing the Jews from captivity and sending them home to
rebuild the temple: see below. In Ezr. 2.979-85.

7 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:120.25).

8 Ps. 2:8.

BOOK ONE

the Apostle says, Whom he has appointed heir of all things, and through
whom he made the world;^ and when he appeared in the flesh, even the
enemies who persecuted him said. This is the heir; come and let us kill
him; and the inheritance shall be ours} But also in the fact that God
the Father subdued the nations before Cyrus, turned the backs of
kings, knocked down gates of bronze and broke through bars of iron,
namely those of Babylon or of the other cities that Cyrus seized, and
in the fact that he gave him hidden treasures and secrets in secret
places, i.e. the unknown riches of various provinces^ - in all this God
made Cyrus a likeness of our Lord and Saviour. For when the apos¬
tles were preaching throughout the world, our Lord subdued the necks
of all nations to himself and subordinated even the masters of earthly
affairs and the authors of secular wisdom to his own authority; he
destroyed the gates of hell that he might from there free his elect and
lead them to the freedom of the celestial homeland; and he refuted the
errors of the pagan peoples and through the mouths of the humble
overthrew teachings founded on human reason, so that when these
errors had been corrected, he could reveal the light of his faith and
truth in which all the treasures of wisdom 11151 and knowledge are
hidden} Our Lord, in his divine nature, possessed these treasures eter¬
nally from the Father; but after assuming his human nature he no
doubt received them from that time when he became man. Therefore,
the Lord made Cyrus like his only-begotten Son, our God and Lord,
Jesus Christ, because just as Cyrus freed God’s people when he
destroyed the kingdom of the Chaldeans, sent them back to their
homeland, ordered that the temple destroyed by fire in Jerusalem be
rebuilt, and even took care to publicize this edict in writing in order
that Jeremiah’s words might be fulfilled in which he predicted that this
would happen, so in the same way the mediator of God and men,^
having destroyed the devil’s reign over the world, reclaims his elect
who have been scattered by the devil’s tyranny and gathers them into
his Church, which not only in the present has been justified by faith
and has peace with God through Christ,® but also in the future hastens

1 Heb. 1:2.

2 Mark 12:7.

3 These lines offer a close paraphrase of Is. 45:1-3, which Bede quotes just above at
In Ezr. 1.125-30.

4 Col. 2:3.

5 1 Tim. 2:5; cf. John 11:52.

6 Cf. Rom. 5:1.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

towards the vision of perpetual peace: for Jerusalem means ‘vision of
peace’J

He also causes the temple that was destroyed by fire to be rebuilt
[246] when, leading back to salvation those who have lost their faith through
the attacks of the ancient enemy, he makes them worthy of his
dwelling. Moreover, he also sent into the whole world holy writings^
by which he could proclaim the faith of his name and the hope of salva¬
tion to all who belong to his kingdom, that is to all the elect. Not only
Jeremiah but all the prophets by common consensus foretold that this
would happen, in accordance with what he himself said to his disci¬
ples: For everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law
of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms? Now the Lord stirred up the
spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians so that, when he recognized 7200/
the power and providence of the God of Israel, he would carry out
those things that Scripture relates about him. In the Gospel, the Lord
says to the Jews: When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will
know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own but speak what the
Father has taught me? But as to what Cyrus himself said in his letter,
the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me all the kingdoms of the
earth, he properly confessed that the Lord God of Israel is indeed the
God of heaven since he realized that he also holds all the kingdoms of
the earth in his power and can give them to whomever he wishes. But
it seems to sound less true when he says that all the kingdoms of the
world were handed over to him by God, unless we should perhaps
understand that at the time in which Cyrus wrote these things, there
was no one to contest his rule; or at all events that after he had
conquered, destroyed, and brought to an end as mighty and ancient a
kingdom as that of the Chaldeans, he believed that no one in the whole
world could oppose his rule. Yet this expression truly agrees with the
majesty of him who says: All power is given to me in heaven and in
earth? The same letter of Cyrus continues:

[1:3] ‘Any of those among you who are of his people - may their God
be with them! - are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judea, and
rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel: he is the God who is

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10).

2 I.e. the New Testament, particularly the Gospels.

3 Luke 24:44.

4 John 8:28.

5 Matt. 28:18.

BOOK ONE

in Jerusalem’. The king’s great faith and great mercy is evident in these
words - faith in that he understood that, before other nations, the
people of Israel are God’s people; mercy because without exception
he allowed all who wished to return to their homeland to do so as free
people; faith because he acknowledged that the same Lord God not
only dwelt in heaven and was in Jerusalem but also could go up with
each of those who were returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. 7225/ Is
it not clearer than light that Cyrus believed this God to be not corpo¬
real and confinable in terms of place but a spirit and present
everywhere? He confessed that God was present in Jerusalem and in
the temple and yet did not doubt that he ruled simultaneously in the
kingdom of heaven. And he believed that he ruled in heaven in such
a way that he was nevertheless with his faithful on earth and guided
their hearts and hands to the doing of those things which are salutary.

Moreover, all the words of this passage are redolent with the spiri¬
tual sense. For to whom is it not readily apparent that it is only those
whom God is with who can j ourney from the confusion of sins to works
of virtue as though from the slavery of Babylon to freedom in
Jerusalem, since we are able to do nothing without him?^ Who would
not rightly see that the reason that the word ‘going up’^ is used in the
same sentence is no doubt that all who sin and are enslaved to the cares
of this world are in the lowest place, whereas those who desire to please
God must direct their mind to higher matters, sigh after the things of
heaven, and through love of the eternal rise above all the pomp and
enticements of the world? It is also mentioned that Jerusalem is in
Judea (i.e. in ‘confession’),^ in order that we who have deserved
through forgetfulness of God to be held captive by the Chaldeans
(which means ‘demons’, i.e. evil spirits)'^ and through the confession
of divine mercy to be set free may return to the vision of free peace^
and light and there build a house to the Lord God of Israel. That is to
say, we should prepare our own hearts (which the Lord himself 7250/
deigns graciously to dwell in and to illuminate with his presence) in
the unity of universal peace, in the confession either of our own sin or

1 Cf. John 15:5.

2 ascensionem, from ascendere ‘to go or rise up’.

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:67.19).

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:64.22-23).

5 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:121.9-10).

[247]

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

of his divine mercy and grace, but we must also take care to inflame
the hearts of our neighbours to the praise of their Creator and to works
of mercy. And so in both these ways we build a house to the Lord when
we either exercise ourselves in works of righteousness or call forth
those whom we can to the path of righteousness by examples and by
words.^ The rest of King Cyrus’ edict follows:

[1:4] ‘And let the others in ail places wherever they reside help him
each from his place with gold and silver, and goods and livestock, in
addition to volnntary offerings for the temple of God in Jernsalem’.

The difference in words should be noted. For the king gave permis¬
sion to all those who had been freed from the injustice of captivity that
whoever wished might, with the Lord’s guidance, go up to build the
temple. Yet he did not order everyone to go up there, for if there were
any among the same people of God whom it pleased more to make
use of the liberty given to them in any other places, he ordered that
these people, each one from his own place, should assist those who
were going up, namely by giving them money and livestock for their
needs on such a long journey. But he desired that they also give and
entrust other gifts to them that they should offer in the Lord’s temple
when they arrived there in memory of those who sent them. Therefore,
all were freed from the Babylonian captivity, all dedicated themselves
[248] to acts of devotion, but only the more perfect went up to build a temple
for the Lord. The rest aided those who went up, because even if all
the elect, after being freed from the power of darkness,^ attain the
freedom of the glory of the children of God f and all rejoice that they
are counted among 7275/ the fellowship of the holy city (i.e. the
Church), yet even so it is not the duty of everyone but only of the
perfect to labour in the building up of this Church even by preaching

1 Throughout his writings, Bede emphasizes that the Christian’s deeds and words
are a key means to leading others to salvation. The good teacher, he insists, is not merely
someone who knows the mysteries of the faith, but someone whose own way of life
exemplifies the same truths that are conveyed through preaching. Thus of Aidan, the
Irish monk summoned by King Oswald to help convert the Northumbrians, Bede wrote:
‘... the best recommendation of his teaching to all was that he taught them no other way
of life than that which he himself practised among his fellows’ - HE 3.5 (227). Cf. In
Ezr. 1.925-29 and 2.1415-24. For commentary on this theme, see Carroll 1946: 216^9;
Bonner 1970: 41-42; DeGregorio 1999: 3-15.

2 Cf. Col. 1:13.

3 Rom. 8:21.

BOOK ONE

to others^ Consequently, such people, more than the rest of the
faithful, are thought by the Apostle to be worthy of twofold honour,^
as also the angel says to Daniel: Those who are learned shall shine like
the brightness of the firmament, and those who instruct many to right¬
eousness, like stars for everlasting eternities? And evidently the more
the instructors of the multitude train their hearers to seek and love the
things of heaven, the less they themselves care about acquiring or
possessing earthly things. Rather, very often they abandon all the
temporal things they have acquired for the hope of things eternal.
Thus, in order that they may continue to preach, their needs must be
sustained by the generosity of richer persons who are unable to preach.
In this way, even rich people themselves can be participants in this
preaching.'* From the viewpoint of these people, John says to Gains:
It was for the sake of the name that they went out, receiving no help from

1 Bede often uses the designation ‘the perfect’ (perfecti) in speaking of a select group
among the faithful, but only rarely does he explain what this term means. To be sure, it
does not mean somebody who has reached a state of absolute perfection, since this can
be accomplished only in heaven. Rather, as Bede explains at In Ezr. 3.1406-10, the
perfect are those who ‘draw near in mind to the heavenly mysteries and... imitate the
peace of highest blessedness amidst the whirlwinds of this transient life’. They differ
from the rest of the faithful in that they ‘are willing to sell all their belongings and give
them as alms to the poor and in this way to follow the Lord’ (3.1416-17). This implies
that the perfect are those in monastic and clerical states who strive to attain a level of
holiness higher than that sought by the laity. On the matter of the perfect and preaching,
however, Bede is not always clear. For while at times he insists, as he does here, that it
is the perfect alone who are to preach the Gospel - see De tab. 3 (340.72-341.87) and
De tempi. 2 (196.166-71) - he elsewhere implies that this task falls to any of the faithful
who live well: cf. Horn. 1.7 (49.99-117) and De tempi. 2 (290.80-94).

2 Cf. 1 Tim. 5:17.

3 Dan. 12:3.

4 Bede’s argument here, namely that the acquisition of material wealth can be
redeemed by giving it to preachers, reflects the reforming concerns of his Letter to
Bishop Ecgberht. As such, it constitutes the first of a series of parallels between this
commentary and the letter (see also In Ezr. 1.1458-70; 2.597-604, 619-26, 1474-79;
3.66-74,820-37,887-99,1866-74). To be sure, Bede’s point is not that preachers should
be remunerated for their preaching, for the Letter is vehement in denouncing ‘those who
most sedulously demand earthly recompense from those who listen to them’ - Epist.
Leg. 8 (411-12). Yet Bede was not against wealth per se, only the improper use of it, as
Carroll 1946: 147^8, has noted. Indeed he imagined a Church abundantly supported
by secular wealth and in the letter offered King Ceolwulf (to whom he dedicated HE)
as a model of just such sponsorship - see Epist. Leg. 9 (412). For more on the parallels
between this commentary and the Letter, see the Introduction, pp. xxxi-xxxiii and
DeGregorio 2004: 6-20.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

the Gentiles. We ought therefore to receive such people so that we may
work together for the truth.^ For this reason it is now said that those
who were going up to build the Lord’s house should be assisted by
generous gifts of money from their friends wherever they were
residing, i.e. whether in Chaldea or in other places to which they had
fled from fear of the Chaldeans. In addition to, he said, volnntary offer¬
ings for the temple of God in Jernsalem, because it behoves those who
abound in temporal riches not only to give from these what is neces¬
sary to the poor of Christ but also themselves willingly to do what good
works 7300/ they can on their own behalf, in order that by the merit of
these, as of a voluntary offering, they may themselves deserve to have
a place in God’s temple, which is the Church. Let it suffice to have said
this much about King Cyrus’ letter.

Let no one doubt that Cyrus’ words overflow with spiritual
mysteries, since it was foretold that God stirred up his spirit to under¬
stand that these things must be written or commanded, and since the
prophet Ezra himself informs us that Cyrus had given these orders to
the people so that the words of the prophets would be fulfilled. For
how could it happen that the king, who is proven to have known and
confessed God and to have loved and established the true beauty of
his house, would not be able to write down heavenly secrets when
instructed by the divine will, given that the faithless governor, the
[249] enemy and murderer of our Redeemer,^ had truly written the great
mystery of our faith as he placed it above his cross. This is Jesus the
Nazarene, king of the Jewsf and remained so determined to keep this
inscription that the Jews, though protesting vigorously, were still
unable to alter it.'^ For the sake of a certain mystery^ for us, [Pilate]
wrote this inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, doubtless because

1 3 John 1:7-8.

2 I.e. Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea who sentenced Christ to death
upon the Cross.

3 Matt. 27:37; John 19:19; cf. Luke 23:38.

4 John 19:21-22.

5 ‘for the sake of a certain mystery’ = certii mysterii gratia. In Bede’s usage, the Latin
noun mysterium is close in meaning to the comparable exegetical term ‘allegory’, in that
it refers to the deeper ‘spiritual’ sense to be found in the biblical text or, in de Lubac’s
words, ‘in the realities of which the text speaks’ (de Lubac 2000: 2.86). Throughout, the
word has been translated literally as ‘mystery’: see In Ezr. 1.317, 499, 1413; 2.132, 435,
913,1393, 2009; and 3.443, 482,1513,1988.

BOOK ONE

all the divine law which the Hebrews had, all the human wisdom about
which the Greeks used to boast, and all the terrestrial kingdom in
which the Romans at that time were especially pre-eminent, bear
witness that Christ is the king of all the saints and of those who confess
God.^ If, therefore, the writing of a ruler hostile to God is laden with
so many and such great mysteries, how much more could a king who
was a lover and patron of divine worship and was inspired and urged
by the Lord, have been able 7325/ to preach those things that are of the
Lord and to proclaim secrets in writing, as the prophet says? As to
what fruit his proclamations and writings contained, the verse which
comes after this in the order of Holy Scripture makes plain:

[1:5-6] Then rose up the leading men of the fathers of Judah and
Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, and every one whose spirit
God had stirred up to go up to buUd the temple of the Lord in
Jerusalem. And all who were round about aided their hands with silver
and gold vessels, with goods, and with livestock, and with equipment,
in addition to what they had brought along voluntarily. Through the
words he proclaimed and the letters he dispatched throughout his
whole kingdom, Cyrus indeed permitted, or rather commanded
concerning the whole people of Israel (which consisted of twelve
tribes) that those whom God was with should go up to Jerusalem to
build the Lord’s house. Nevertheless, it was not the whole people who
wished to go up but only some of those to whom Jerusalem itself and
the Lord’s temple had formerly belonged, namely those from Judah
and Benjamin and the priestly and levitical tribe.^ Lor the remaining
ten tribes had already been estranged from the Lord’s temple and the

1 It was a commonplace, especially of Latin patristic commentators, to accord a
special pre-eminence to the three languages used for the titulus of the Cross, since it is
through those languages above all that the revelation of Christ was proclaimed
throughout the world. Bede’s comments here are closest to Augustine Tractatus in evan-
gelium loannis 117.4 (CCSL 36:653.6-10), which Bede quotes as well in On Luke in
discussing Luke 23:38 - see In Luc. 6 (404.1649-59). But cf. Isidore Etymologiae 9.1.2-3.
The theme has been discussed by Resnick 1990.

2 Before his death, Joshua divided the Promised Land among each of the twelve
tribes (see Josh. 13-22). Land was apportioned for each to inhabit except the priestly
tribe of Levi (i.e. the Levites), who because of their sacerdotal functions were to dwell
amidst and be supported by the other tribes (see. Josh. 18:7). The territory that included
Jerusalem was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (see Josh. 18:28; Num. 18:20-28), while
the tribe of Judah gained Jerusalem through David’s conquest of the Jebusites (see 2
Sam. 5:6-7). Cf. below. In Ezr. 3.1419-22,1460-62.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

practice of devotion while under King Jeroboam,^ and as a due reward
for such great disobedience, they had been captured by the kings of
the Assyrians and transported beyond the mountains of the Medes,^
and, so they say, none of them were ever allowed to return to the
homeland. Moreover, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which
possessed Jerusalem and the surrounding regions of Judea, together
with the priests and Levites to whom the ministry of the temple
pertained, though they themselves had imitated the sins of the ten
tribes, 7350/ nonetheless never forsook their dwelling in the city of
[250] Jerusalem and the sacred rituals of the temple. Hence they were the
last to be captured by the Chaldeans and the first to be permitted to
return home once the Persians began to rule - and deservedly so,
seeing that our Lord descended from the tribe of Judah and his mother
Mary was joined by kinship to the tribe of Levi, which is why Elizabeth,
the wife of the priest Zechariah, is called her cousin by the angel.^ The
tribe of Benjamin had also joined itself to them in observant faith espe¬
cially because the city of Jerusalem itself was in its loE and so it merited
to be the sharer of the mercy bestowed upon them.

It is beautifully said that the leaders of the fathers from the afore¬
said tribes arose that they might go up to build the Lord’s temple. For
it is a duty of leaders and fathers (i.e. teachers), by working and

1 Cf. 1 Kings 11:26-14:22. After Solomon’s death, the Israelite monarchy split into
two rival kingdoms: the northern, consisting of the ten tribes, and the southern,
composed of Judah and Benjamin. Jeroboam I ruled over the northern kingdom, estab¬
lishing his headquarters north of Jerusalem at Shechem. To ensure that the ten tribes
would not desire to return to the temple in Jerusalem where Judah and Benjamin had
remained, he determined to provide them with places of worship in their own bound¬
aries and for this purpose set up the two golden calves, thus leading the ten tribes into
idolatry. For an overview, see Wood 1986: 255-320.

2 Cf. 2 Kings 17:4-6,18:9-11.

3 Cf. Luke 1:36; ‘cousin’ = cognata. Though Mary’s Levitical status is not explicitly
mentioned in the Gospels, it can be easily inferred. In this verse she is called the ‘cousin’
of Elizabeth, who at Luke 1:5 is said to be of the daughters of Aaron; and Aaron, as
Moses’ brother, is ‘of the house of Levi’ (Ex. 2:1). Thus, as Bede says, through kinship
ties (hire consanguinitatis) Mary is joined to the Levites.

4 sorte. The distribution of the Promised Land was decided by the casting of the ‘lot’
(sors), an oracular device made out of stones or wood used frequently in the Old
Testament to determine God’s will: see Bidmead 2000. On Benjamin’s gaining
Jerusalem by lot, see Josh. 18:28. In his earlier work Exposition of the Acts of the
Apostles, Bede counselled his contemporary audience to understand that the practice
of using lots was no longer permissible: see Exp. Act. 1 (14.248-15.270).

BOOK ONE

teaching as preachers, to take up the challenge of devout labour in
order to build up the mind of those in error to pursue good works by
exhorting, rebuking and correcting. They are well said to have risen
up in order to go up to Jerusalem, because those who refuse to take
care of their own or their brother’s salvation lie dead, as it were, with
a weak and listless soul. They rise up, indeed, when they hear the king’s
proclamation, or rather when the Lord stirs up their spirits to ascend
to the building of his house when, prompted by the words of the Holy
Scriptures and aflame with the grace of their Creator, they shake off
the torpor of their former negligence and, having seized upon a reso¬
lution for a better way of life, by making daily advances in good works
they strive to reach, as though by certain steps leading upward, the
heights of the virtues that are in the vision of eternal peace.^ /375/ Of
these steps the first few are that each person keep his own life from
sins by living well, the next few that he also turn his neighbours from
their errors and negligence by teaching well, and the last that, after
good works and teaching, he expect the joys of everlasting recom¬
pense.^

As for the fact that all who lived round about helped with silver and
gold, goods, and livestock those who went up to build the Lord’s house,
we have briefly discussed above^ how this should be understood mysti¬
cally - namely, that the need of preachers should be supported by the
wealth of those who are believers. The fact that their companions who
are unable to build the temple assist the hands of the builders by giving
them money can be rightly understood to refer to those occasions
when secular men commit their children or household members to
holy preachers in order to educate them for the Lord,'* so that they can

1 Cf. In Ezr. 3.451-73, for further equation of ‘steps’ (gradus) and ‘progress’
(profectiis). Also, one should recall here that Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome
De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10).

2 Cf. Bede In Ezr. 3.1465-79, 2047^9. The view of the Christian life as a progres¬
sion through various stages is a commonplace in medieval thought and appears
frequently in Bede’s exegetical writings. For discussion, see Holder 1991:150-54.

3 In Ezr. 1.273-92.

4 During the Middle Ages, children were commonly given by their parents to
monastic houses to be reared, educated, and vowed to religious service. The practice,
known as child oblation (Latin oblatio, ‘offering’), is one that Bede himself experienced
at first hand, as he tells us at HE 5.24 (567): ‘When I was seven years of age I was, by
the care of my kinsman, put into the charge of the reverend Abbot Benedict and then
of Ceolfrith, to be educated’.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

offer the service of their devotion to the Lord which they cannot
perform themselves through those who can perform it. They give silver
vessels when they give men shining with eloquence; they give gold
[251 ] vessels when they give men distinguished by natural ability; they give
beasts of burden when they give men slower in understanding but
ready to bear the light yoke and pleasant burden of the Gospel;^ they
give sheep when they give men humble and meek in spirit^ who are
accustomed to give freely to the poor from their own possessions as if
from milk and wool; they give goods and various kinds of furniture
when their kinsmen or lords entrust men or women distinguished by
the manifold flowers of good works to holy teachers, through whom
they may be consecrated to the Lord and contribute to the building of
his house. For there are many who, by a natural /400/ gift, are chaste,
patient, modest, liberal, abstinent, kind, who reject both the honours
and the delights of the world, who are lovers of righteousness no
less than of wisdom, and who perhaps, like Cornelius,^ persevere in
prayers and almsgiving. The Apostle says of such as these that though
they do not have the Law, they do by nature those things which are of
the Law5 They are offered to holy preachers to be reborn in Christ or
confirmed further in the faith, just as various items of furniture trans¬
ported to build the Lord’s house are given to the leading men of the
fathers.

[1:7-8] King Cyrus also brought out the vessels of the Lord’s temple
that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and placed in the
temple of his god. Cyrus king of the Persians released them into the
charge of Mithredath son of Gazabar, and counted them out to
Sheshbazzar prince of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar removes the Lord’s
vessels from Jerusalem^ when any unclean spirit snatches some of the
faithful from the Church and strips them of the joy of inward peace;®
and he puts them in the temple of his god when he joins them to the
fellowship of the reprobate who are the temple and city of the devil.

1 Cf. Matt. 11;30.

2 Cf. Matt. 11:29.

3 Cf. Acts 10:1-2.

4 Rom. 2:14.

5 When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem in 605 BC, his
armies looted the temple of its furnishings and carried the spoils back to Babylon: see
2 Kings 24:13 and 2 Chron. 36:10.

6 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:121.9-10).

BOOK ONE

namely the head of all evil ones, angels and men alike. But King Cyrus
brings them forth and counts them out to the prince of Judah that they
might be brought back to Jerusalem when our Lord, who is the heir of
all things,^ frees from Satan’s power those whom he has predestined
to eternal salvation and presents them to the priests of the Church that
they may be reconciled through penance.^ And it is well that it says
that the vessels were counted out to the prince of Judah, because the
Lord knows the number of his elect, nor does any one of his sheep
perish when they confess 7425/ his great and terrible name; for Judah
is interpreted as ‘confession’.^

[1:9-11] And this is the number of them: thirty gold bowls, a thousand
sUver bowls, twenty-nine knives, thirty gold cups, four hundred and
ten matching silver cups, and a thousand other vessels. The total of
gold and sUver vessels was five thousand four hundred. The various
kinds of vessels represent the various persons or deeds of the faithful. [252]
Moreover, in the Apocalypse we read that the twenty-four ancients had
golden bowls full of fragrances f and Scripture, by way of explanation,
adds: which are the prayers of the saints. Consequently, the bowls,
which are open and shining vessels, designate the hearts of the simple,
which know no concealing of deceitful thoughts within themselves but
are wont to speak out with a pure tongue the things they keep in their
mind. This is why spices (i.e. prayers acceptable to God) are rightly
said to be in these bowls. By contrast, the impure hearts of the repro¬
bate are properly compared to sponges that are shadowy with blind
channels. This is also why the Jews offered the crucified Lord a sponge
filled with vinegar] that they might represent through such an action
that, when their Creator came to them in the flesh, they offered him
thoughts from a deceitful heart and words that were sour and much
degenerated from the very pure taste of their ancestors’ utterances.

On the other hand, the knives with which they used to cut up and divide

1 Cf. Heb. 1:2.

2 Bede shares Augustine's view that while all people are doomed to perdition
because of Adam’s sin, some are elected to salvation by the wholly inscrutable yet just
judgement of God. Because these elect, while sojourning in this world, cannot hope to
avoid sin completely, they must continually be reconciled to God through penance: cf.
In Ezr. 1.1586-91 and 2.694—706. On predestination, see Bonner 1970: 46-47; on
penance, see Carroll 1946: 157-76.

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:67.19).

4 Rev. 5:8.

5 John 19:29.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

the limbs of the sacrificial victims in a suitable way so that, after every¬
thing was divided up with due observance, part was consumed in
the sacred fire on the altar while part was given to the priests, part to
the Levites, and part to those who were making offerings, doubtless
symbolize those in the Church who are marked by the grace of
discretion.^ These people perfectly know how to discern in the
salvation-bringing sacrifice 7450/ that is Christ what things should be
said to everyone, what to the more perfect alone, and what, exceeding
the bounds of human thought, should be given to the fire of the Holy
Spirit. Likewise, the knives symbolize that all who are dedicated to
God through faithful service are his victims. The knives by which the
limbs of the sacrifices are divided into portions should be understood
typologically as the scribes learned in the kingdom of heaven^ who,
skilfully examining the merits and thoughts of their listeners, know
well how to decide who they should promote to which grade of the
ecclesiastical ministry. The cups (which are drinking vessels) figura¬
tively express those who are wont to be intoxicated with a more fervent
blaze^ of inward love. Now it is said that some vessels were gold and
others were silver. The gold ones signify those who glow with the
greater splendour of spiritual wisdom, the silver those who by the
charm of speech understand how to expound more eloquently those
things which they know. Distinguishing these in turn, the Apostle
says: To some by the Spirit is given the words of wisdom, to others, the
word of knowledge according to the same Spirit^ But the fact that it
mentions the number of the vessels, both each kind individually and

1 discretionis sunt gratia insignes. Called the ‘mother of virtues’ by St Benedict
(Regula Benedicti 64.19, ed. Fry 282; cf. Bede HE 3.5 [228] and In Cant. 4 [323.297]), the
virtue of discretion [discretio) was an important concept for the Western monastic tradi¬
tion to which Bede belonged. Also translated as ‘discernment’, discretio basically means
‘separation’ or ‘division’ and came to stand for the ability to be able to distinguish
(discemere) good from evil; it thus implies a kind of perceptivity in decision-making,
the ability to judge and discern and to act accordingly, which is how Bede is using the
term here. This idea was championed by such monastic writers as Cassian, Benedict,
and Gregory the Great, whose Pastoral Care makes much of the term in discussing the
qualities of the ideal rector or teacher. The prominence of discretio in Bede’s writings
is noted by Brown 1996:1-2. For general discussion of the term, see Waaijman 1997 and
Scholl 2001.

2 Cf. Matt. 13:52.

3 flagrantia: literally, ‘burning heat’, from flagrare ‘to burn or blaze’. Cf. In Ezr.
1.1179.

4 1 Cor. 12:8.

BOOK ONE

the total of all collectively, teaches us that the Lord keeps the sum total
of his elect written down in the book of eternal remembrance - not
just of those who persevere in the purity of the faith which they have
accepted but also of those who, after they have gone astray, return to [253]
the faith by regaining their senses. As a figure of these people it is aptly
added:

[1:11] All these things Sheshbazzar brought with those who went up
from exile in Babylon to Jerusalem. This is undoubtedly because none
7475/ of those who are predestined to life can be damned eternally, but
all who belong to the Lord, even though they may seem for a time to
have been taken away to Babylon (i.e. to the confusion of sins),^ are
in one way or another led back by divine foresight through the fellow¬
ship of the righteous to the peace of the Church. But the vessels that
the army of the Chaldeans are said to have broken when they took
them from Jerusalem and which they carried off in pieces to
Babylonia^ stand for the type of those who are seized by the victorious
devil in such a way that, before they can be saved by repenting, they
are taken from human affairs and dragged off to eternal punishment.

[2:1] These are the children of the province who went up from the
captivity, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had transferred to
Babylon. The ‘children of the province’ means the children of Judea,
not of Babylon. Lor to this province belonged not only those who were
deported from Judea to Babylon but also those who were born in
Babylon from their stock - those who, though born in the flesh in
Babylon, yet longed with all their soul for Judea and Jerusalem. Their
distinguished leader Zerubbabel was a figure of these people: his name
indicates that he was born in Babylon, but by his intention and his
deeds he shows that he was a citizen of Jerusalem. In a higher sense,
however, the children of the Church are the children of the heavenly
homeland, not only those who have already been imbued with the
sacraments of the Church but even those who, though wandering in
error for some time (i.e. among the impious), nevertheless were preor¬
dained to life by divine election before the world began, and are to be
consecrated by the mysteries of divine grace at their own due time.

About these 7500/ it is aptly added:

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18).

2 Cf. 2 Kings 25:13-17; Jer. 52:17-23.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[2:1] And they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own
city, who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, and the

remaining names of the leaders. For when, after being freed from the
power of Satan those who have strayed from the faith have returned
with those who have recently learned the faith to the Jerusalem of
longed-for ‘peace’ and the Judah of devout ‘confession or praise’,^
each one soon makes for his own city again and enters it, i.e. he
[254] devoutly pursues the guardianship and exercise of the virtues which
divine generosity has granted to him according to the measure of faith.
And it is appropriate that when he had said that in general they had
returned to Jerusalem and Judah, he immediately added everyone to
his own city, doubtless because they remained in their own cities but
in such a way that everyone in general belonged to Jerusalem and
Judah.^ Let Jerusalem, therefore, stand for the universal state of the
Holy Church throughout the world; let the cities belonging to
Jerusalem stand for the individual virtues of the faithful whereby they
are shielded from the temptations and onslaughts of evil spirits, as if
by the protection of cities. The cities in which those who had come
from captivity to Jerusalem and Judah dwelled can also be understood
to refer to the various churches of Christ throughout the world from
all of which the one Catholic Church is made, in which all who dwell
individually nonetheless profess that they are the children of the
Catholic Church, as it were the citizens of Jerusalem.

In preference to others, they employed Zerubbabel and Jeshua as
their leaders. Of these men the first is shown in many passages of
sacred history to have taken his lineage from royal stock, whereas the
second is shown to have taken his lineage from priestly stock.^ 7525/
Both designate the one and the same person of our Redeemer, in other
words of the true king and high priest. For he alone is the one through
whom we must come to salvation, which is why he says No one comes

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10; and 67.19).

2 The distinction being made here is between the particular locality in which one
lives and the larger geographic area in which that locality is situated, e.g. you were born
in a certain city but in general you are from the country to which that city belongs. In
the sentences following, the same distinction is made with respect to the Church - the
‘diverse churches throughout the world’ belong to as well as constitute the ‘One
Universal Church' in the same way that we are all born in cities or towns that collec¬
tively make up larger countries and nations.

3 Cf. In Ezr. 1.909-21; on Zerubbabel’s and Jeshua’s origins, see In Ezr. 1.1506-12.

BOOK ONE

to the Father except by me} Whether through himself by hidden inspi¬
ration or through holy preachers by open instruction, he gathers each
of the elect from the ‘confusion’ of this present life to the ‘vision of
perpetual peace’ and the ‘confession’ of divine praise - from Babylon
to Jerusalem and Judah,^ so to speak. By his gift, this vision of peace
and confession of thanks is no doubt begun in the present, but it is
completed only in the life to come.

[2:2-3] The number of the men of the people of Israel: the children
of Parosh two thousand one hundred and seventy-two, and so on until
it concludes with a complete catalogue of the people of Israel (i.e.
priests, Levites, singers, Nathinnites^ and descendants of the servants
of Solomon) as follows: All the Nathinnites, and the children of the
servants of Solomon, three hundred and seventeen^ After the cata¬
logue of leaders there follows the number of the people; after the
recounted total of the people there follow in order the different ranks
devoted to God. The ‘people of Israel’ means the tribe of Judah and
Benjamin and whoever else from the other tribes had previously
escaped from the hands of the Assyrians but had nonetheless been
taken with them by the Babylonians and had been led away into
captivity. In fact we should note that in the very text of the catalogue
- and more where the same catalogue is repeated in the second part
of the book, i.e. in the words of Nehemiah^ - the names of about fifteen [255]

1 John 14:6.

2 For the word-play to make sense, it must be recalled that Babylon = ‘confusion’,
that Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’, and that Judah = ‘confession’, as Bede, following
Jerome, has already explained: see above In Ezr. 1.189, 242, 477.

3 The word ‘Nathinnites’ does not designate a tribe but is a transliteration of the
Hebrew nattntm or Aramaic n’tinim (literally, ‘those who have been given'), meaning
‘temple servants’ (cf. the Septuagint’s hoi dedomenoi: 1 Chron. 9:2). Josephus calls them
hierodouloi (‘temple slaves’ - Antiquitates Judaicae 11.5.1), and some have argued that
they were originally prisoners of war who were given to the temple as slaves: see
Mendelsohn 1949:102-06. In this connection, note that at In Ezr. 3.548-50 Bede refers
to the Nathinnites as ‘inhabitants of Gibeon’ who served the temple ‘according to the
arrangement of Joshua son of Nun’, a reference, it would seem, to Joshua’s forcing the
Gibeonites to become temple slaves (see Josh. 9:16-27). Modern scholars, however,
deny any connection between the Gibeonites and the Nathinnites, arguing that, in the
context of Ezra-Nehemiah, the status of the Nathinnites is more elevated than that of
slaves, as is shown by their being exempt along with priests and Levites from certain
taxes (Ezra 7:24): see McKenzie 1965: 612-13 and Levine 1963: 207-08.

4 Ezra 2:58.

5 Cf. Neh. 7:7-38. As noted above (p. 1, n. 1), Bede’s wording here shows that the
section on Nehemiah did not at this time constitute a separate book, as it does today in

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

cities are inserted which, unless I am mistaken, are all found only in
the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. 7550/ In this passage, then, it is prob¬
able that ‘people of Israel’ is to be understood as these tribes in
particular along with the priests and Levites who had shared the same
fate.^ The Nathinnites, however, who are described in due sequence
after the priests, Levites, singers and gatekeepers, were the equivalent
in those days of those who nowadays in the Church are called subdea¬
cons, since they assisted the duties of the Levites and received
offerings in the temple from the peoples.^ Further, the name ‘descen¬
dants of the servants of Solomon’ was given to the temple stewards
who were responsible for repairing the sacred buildings,^ so that what¬
ever had been damaged might be restored again by them through the
use of the sacred funds. What we have said above‘s about the vessels
should be said now about the people, namely that the reason that
Scripture has distinguished so scrupulously how many captives from
what families had returned to their country as free men is so that from
this we might be advised with how much certitude the Lord writes the
sum of his elect in the book of life, records, as it were, in the register
of heaven, how many souls each of the faithful have turned from error
by preaching or manifesting examples of good works, and compen¬
sates those they have converted with an appropriate reward for each
one.

[2:59-60] And these are the ones who came np from Tel-melah, Tel-
harsha, Chernb, Addon, and Immer, bnt they were not able to show
whether the home of their ancestors and their seed were of Israel. The
descendants of Delaiah, the descendants of Tobiah, the descendants
of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two. Even taken literally this passage
shows the grace of God by which even in the Old Testament the
Gentiles were led to salvation. For when the list of those who it was
known really belonged to God’s people was set out, there were added

Protestant Bibles. Hence the material comes ‘in the second part of the book, i.e. in the
words of Nehemiah’ (in secunda parte libri, hoc est in verbis Neemiae). For a recent
summary of the issue, see Bogaert 2000: 9-12.

1 Cf. below In Ezr. 2.832-58, for another passage in which Bede is careful to clarify
that this group of returnees was from Judah.

2 Isidore De ecclesiasticis officiis 2.10.1-2 (CCSL 113:69.1-11), and Etymologiae
7.12.23-24. On the association of the Levites with the ecclesiastical order of deacons,
see below In Ezr. 1.850-62 and the accompanying note.

3 Isidore De ecclesiasticis ojficiis 2.13.1 (CCSL 113:72.6-9).

4 In Ezr. 1.466-71.

BOOK ONE

7575/ to them some from those who it was not known whether they
were from Israel or from the proselytes^ The reason that their number
is set forth among the children of Israel is that, even though they had
not been able to show how they belonged to him on account of the
long separation of their ancestors from the temple or people of God,
yet because they had gone up from the captivity when they were given
general freedom to do so and hastened to build God’s temple along
with those who were certainly descended from Israel, they were
received by them as companions. For they rejoiced to consider them
as brothers and friends [notos] on account of the love of common faith
and religion, although they seemed to have held them as less well
known [cognitos] due to the uncertainty of their carnal origin.^ But in
the spiritual sense, among the penitents who, freed from the captivity
of the vices, go up to build the Lord’s house either in themselves or in
others, there are generally some bound by more serious sins who seem [256]
to be so alienated from every act of devotion and chastity that
absolutely none of the goodness and religion they have received from
holy teachers seems to have remained in them. What else should be
said about these people except that it is not possible to show whether
they were born from Israel (i.e. the Holy Church) by their belief, no
doubt because by sinning they have become like people who never
belonged to the holy seed in any way. Yet sometimes by repenting they
are corrected and turned to a better life to such an extent that their
number is deservedly recorded in heaven among the true Israelites, in
whom there is no guile?

[2:61-63] And of the descendants of the priests: the descendants of
Habaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai, a
man who took a wife of the danghters of Barzillai the Gileadite and
was called by their name. 7600/ These searched for the written record

1 In an Old Testament context, the name ‘proselyte’ (Greek proselytos ‘one who
comes to a place’, i.e. a stranger) means a Gentile who accepted Judaism in its entirety,
undergoing the initiatory rites of circumcision, a ritual bath, and the offering of a sacri¬
ficial victim: cf. In Ezr. 2.669-72; Epist. Cath. Prol. (181.11-14); and Exp. Act. 2
(18.93-98). This word is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew ger, ‘sojourner’
or ‘resident alien’. Cf. In Ezr. 2.669-72.

2 It is possible that cognitos ‘known’ may suggest - or even be a misreading for -
cognatos ‘kindred’. Moreover, Bede’s phrase velut fratres et notos, ‘like brothers or
friends’ recalls the Gospel’s inter cognatos et notos, ‘among kindred and friends' (Luke
2:44).

3 John 1:47.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

of their genealogy, but they could not find it and were excluded from
the priesthood. And Athersata^ said to them that they should not eat
of the most holy things, untU there might arise a priest learned and
perfect. The descendants of the exiles^ act with the same precaution
towards the priests as they are reported to have acted with towards the
people. For they took much trouble that it should become known
without confusion who truly belonged to the people of Israel or to the
priestly class, and who were suspect, or were born from undoubtedly
proselyte (i.e. foreign) stock. And so they banished from the service
of the altar the priests whom they suspected until their origin could
become more certainly known, but nonetheless, they kept them with
them in harmonious peace in the company of exiles. According to the
mystical sense, however, the descendants of the priests who, coming
up from the Babylonian captivity, look for the written record of their
genealogies and, upon being unable to find it, are ejected from the
priesthood, refers to when ministers of the altar themselves fall into
such great crimes and such serious heresies that, although by repenting
they can recover the salvation of their souls, they can no longer
become worthy to be promoted to the sacerdotal grade which they
have lost, or recover the job of preaching the Gospel or of adminis¬
tering the sacraments. Although they may indeed hope for eternal life
among the faithful, yet they will be unable to find the written record
of their grade among the perfect priests, a level which they cannot
recover.

[2:64-65] The whole assembly, like one man, totalled forty-two thou¬
sand three hundred and sixty, in addition to their male and female
servants, who numbered seven thousand three hundred and thirty-
seven. Note that the grace of the primitive Church, in 7625/ which the

1 Athersata {hattirsata in Hebrew) is not a name, as Bede appears to think, but is
believed to be a title meaning ‘the Governor’, and is translated as such in most modern
English versions.

2filii transmigrationis. Bede uses this phrase to refer to those Jews whose ancestors
were originally led away to captivity in Babylon and who now, years later, are returning
to Jerusalem. I have thus translated it throughout as ‘descendents of the exile’. In the
Vulgate, the phrase filii transmigrationis is used to translate both the Aramaic b‘rie
haggdtah (Ezra 6:16; Dan. 2:25,5:13,6:14) and the Hebrew b‘ne haggolah (Ezra 4:1,6:19,
6:20, 8:35, 10:7, 10:16); it is also employed by Jerome in his On Obadiah - In Abdiam
20.21 (CCSL 76:372.690).

BOOK ONE

multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul,^ is found in this
assembly of exiles as well, so much so that, even though the host was so
great that it totalled nearly fifty thousand people and was moreover of [257]
diverse rank and condition, nevertheless the whole multitude seemed
to be like one man because of the same faith and love,^ since by his gift
he causes those of one mind to dwell together in his house.^ The male
and female servants of those returning from Babylon to Jerusalem
represent figuratively those in the Church who by progress in an
amended way of life endeavour to conquer the vices and to scale the
peak of the virtues, even though they are as yet unable to discern for
themselves the path of the regular life'* but rather still need to be kept
in check by the diligence of those who have preceded them in Christ and

1 Acts 4:32. Bede refers to the primitive church again at In Ezr. 2.656-57 and 3.973,
1199-1206. Both in the present passage and again in Book 3 (see lines 1199-1206) he
appears to have in mind a three-way connection between the returnees, the primitive
church, and monasticism, the three being united by their commitment to brotherhood
and charity: see below, nn. 3 and 4. Earlier writers such as Eusebius, Basil the Great,
Cassian and others compared monasticism to the life of apostles as described in Acts,
seeing the latter as the origin of the coenobitic life: see Bartelink 2004. In his two
commentaries on Acts, Bede, in treating Acts 4:32, likewise emphasizes that associa¬
tion: see Exp. Act. 4 (CCSL 121:27.69-73) and Retract. Act. 4 (CCSL 121:126.101-
127.129). Moreover, in the Ecclesiastical History, he notes of Augustine and his fellow
monks that, when they arrived in Kent, ‘.. .they began to imitate the way of life of the
apostles and of the primitive church’ - HE 1.26 (76). For more on Bede’s view of the
primitive church, see Olsen 1982; on the monastic implications of this and other passages
in On Ezra and Nehemiah, see DeGregorio 2005.

2 On this theme, cf. De tempi. 1 (173.1067-73).

3 Cf. Ps. 68:6 (67:7), which Bede quotes again at HE 2.2 (136). Although there is no
evidence that Bede knew it, his coupling of this verse with Acts 4:32 calls to mind the
so-called Rule of St Augustine, which begins by quoting both verses to emphasize the
principle of community at the heart of monastic life as Augustine envisaged it: see
Augustine Praeceptum 1.2 (ed. Verheijen. 1:417). Cf. also Augustine Tractatus in evan-
gelium loannis 76.2 (CCSL 36:518.16-17), and Ps. 133:1 (132:1).

4 ‘path of regular life’ = viam vitae regularis. The phrase, which evidently means a
life conformed to the discipline of a monastic rule, confirms the monastic overtones
noted earlier in this passage: see nn. 1 and 3 above. Bede’s use of the word regula else¬
where in On Ezra and Nehemiah may carry similar monastic connotations: e.g. regulari
moderamine (1.861-2); custodia disciplinae regularis (3.641-2); regulari ratione (3.784);
valuae disciplinae regularis (3.1005-6). Compare Bede’s usage at HE 3.24 (292) and 4.23
(408), where he applauds TElfflaed and Hild for teaching the ‘rule’ {vitae regularis)', and
at HE 5.24 (566), where he notes his own life-long dedication to ‘the observance of the
rule’ {observantium disciplinae regularis).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

thus be directed towards the way of longed-for truth. There follows:
[2:65] And there were among them two hundred male and female
singers. Not only are there singers as well as gatekeepers of the temple
and Nathinnites in the Levite order, but these together with female
singers are also found among God’s people itself, hurrying to restore
the buildings of the house of God. According to the literal meaning,
he calls ‘singers’ those who used to sing psalms in a sweet melody,
something the Chronicles testify the Levites were accustomed to do at
their daily sacrifices in God’s temple, though it is plausible that many
of the common people at that time, each of them in their own places,
did this too.^ According to the mystical meaning, however, the singers
are those in the temple or among the people of God who, with a greater
sweetness of soul, both keep the heavenly commandments and with
frequent exhortations commend their hearers to keep them. /650/ It is
proper also that, along with the male singers, female singers should be
included on account of their female sex, in which there are many
people found who not only by the way they live but also by preaching
enkindle the hearts of their neighbours to the praise of their Creator
and, as though with the sweetness of a holy voice, assist the labour of
those who build the Lord’s temple.^

Both the title and the text of Psalm 95 agree with the service of all
of these singers. For the title is A canticle for David, when the house
of God was being built after the captivity} On the literal level, this title
appears to speak of the rebuilding of the temple about which the
present book writes; but in the anagogical (i.e. higher) sense,"* it

1 Cf. 1 Chron. 15:16; 16:4.

2 As Thacker 1983: 131 has noted, this passage is interesting as it shows that Bede
was comfortable with the idea of women preachers. His stance here accords with his
remarks elsewhere that terms such as ‘priest’ and ‘pastor’ comprise not only men in holy
orders but all the faithful who live and teach well - see Horn. 1.7 (49.98-117) and De
tempi. 2 (194.80-94). Passages such as these appear to contradict the view of Lees and
Overing 1994, who argue from Bede’s treatment of Abbess Hild in the HE that he was
troubled by the idea of women in positions of authority. Indeed, Bede mentions many
holy abbesses in HE who were distinguished for their way of life and teaching. Anglo-
Saxon women are also known to have played a major role in the evangelisation of the
Continent: see Hyland 1996.

3 Ps. 96:1 (95:1).

4 anagogico, id est altiore, sensu. As Bede explains in On the Tabernacle, ‘ Anagogy
(that is, speech leading to higher things) is that which discusses, in words either mystical
or plain, future rewards and what the future life in heaven consists of - De tab. 1
(25.802-4); trans. Holder 26.

BOOK ONE

suggests the construction of the Holy Church, which is made from
souls freed from demonic captivity and brought back to the recogni¬
tion of their Creator. During this building, each one of the elect should
resound with a song of praise and confession for him ‘of the strong
hand’, the ‘desirable one’^ - that is to say, the Lord Jesus Christ, truth¬
fully understanding that it is not possible to do anything good without
his grace. The Psalm too concurs with the title: Sing, it says, to the Lord [258]
a new song: sing to the Lord, every land. Sing to the Lord, and praise
his name: proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among
the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.^ Firstly, then, we
are commanded in building the Lord’s house to sing ‘a new song’ to
the Lord himself - which is to say, both to retain his love inwardly
within our heart and to show it in an outward way by keeping his
commandments. And not just a few people should do this, but every
land throughout which the Holy Church has spread. Next, we are
instructed /675/ to preach^ (for in Latin this means ‘to announce the
good news’) his salvation, namely Christ, and this not just to a select
group of listeners but to all the peoples of whom the Church spread
throughout the whole world is comprised - not that any one person
can preach the Gospel to all nations, but we can all do this in all nations,
each of us in his own time and place, and all of us are both obliged and
able individually to wish for the joy of everlasting salvation for all as
we say: Praise the Lord, all you nations: praise him, all you peoples.

[2:66-67] Their horses were six hundred and thirty-six, their mules two
hundred and forty-five, their camels four hundred and thirty-five, then-
asses six thousand five hundred and twenty. A mule is born from an
ass and a mare, a she-mule from a horse and a she-ass.^ So with the
men who went up from the captivity, the animals that assisted their
journey are described as well, and the reason that their number is

1 The etymological word-play here is taken from Jerome De nominibus hebraicis
(CCSL 72:103.11), who claims that in Hebrew the name David means fortis manus sive
desiderabilis. Bede indulges in similar word-play on David’s name later in Book 3: see
In Ezr. 3.465-66,1685-86.

2 Ps. 96:1-3 (95:1-3).

3 The Latin verb evangelizare. translated here as ‘preach’, is derived from the Greek
evangelizesthai which literally does mean ‘to announce good news’; cf. evangelion, ‘good
news’, ‘(reward for) good tidings’.

4Ps. 117:1 (116:1).

5 Isidore Etymologiae 12.1.60; Pliny Naturalis historia 8.69.171.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

designated in the prophetic book like that of the men is no doubt
because there are many in the Church who are either slower in under¬
standing or even carnal in spirit who nevertheless obey spiritual
teachers with dutiful devotion and submit their mind’s back in order
to bear the burdens of fraternal necessity with humility. These people
too, rescued with the rest of the elect from the confusion of enslave¬
ment to the devil, strive for the fortifications of the heavenly city. The
whole number of these, like that of the more perfect, is preserved
unchanged in the eternal memory of the inner witness. For this reason
God is told by the person of the Holy Church universal: Your eyes did
see my imperfect being, and all shall be written in your book]^ and in
another psalm: You will save both men and beasts, Oh Lord. /700/ Oh
how have you multiplied your mercies. Oh God; but further on
concerning the more perfect. But the children of men shall put their
trust in the protection of your wings, and so on.^

[2:68-69] And when they entered the Lord’s temple which is in
[259] Jernsalem, some of the leading men of the fathers offered freely to the
Lord’s house to rebuild it on its site. According to their means they
gave towards the expenses of the work forty-one thousand solidi of
gold, live thousand minae of silver, and a hundred garments for the
priests. It is proof of great devotion when one freely offers to the sight
of the divine majesty not merely the offerings due to it (i.e. those
commanded by the Lord’s Law) but, in addition, freely offers other
gifts of which he received not a commandment but counsel. For a
commandment is: You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit
adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false testimony, honour
your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbour as
yourself,^ but the freewill offering: If you wish to be perfect, go sell what
you have and give to the poor.^ And what the Apostle says: Now
concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I offer
counsel;^ and in regard to himself: And the Lord ordained that those
who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel. But I have used none
of these things;^ and to the Thessalonians: Neither did we eat any man’s

1 Ps. 139:16 (138:16).

2 Ps. 36:6-7 (35:7-8).

3 Matt. 19:18-19.

4 Matt. 19:21.

5 1 Cor. 7:25.

6 1 Cor. 9:14-15.

BOOK ONE

food without paying for it. On the contrary, in labour and in toil we
worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

We did this, not because we do not have the right, but in order that we
might give ourselves as a model for you to follow.^ Rightly then is it
reported that the leaders of the fathers freely offered gifts to rebuild
God’s house, 7725/ for the more that any abstain even from permis¬
sible things with the restraint that is proper to formally prohibited
actions, the more effectively do they build God’s Church, since all who
learn of the examples of their perfection are going to be that much
more afraid to descend into forbidden things to the extent that they
consider that those people^ do not always make use even of what is
permissible but instead say, All things are lawful to me, but not all things
are beneficial?

Now it has been well said that According to their means they gave
towards the expenses of the work. For this, surely, is the measure of
human perfection - that each person should labour for the Lord
according to his abilities and strengthen the state of the Holy Church,
firstly by living in an upright way himself, and secondly by correcting
his neighbours. And rightly are those among God’s people who live in
such a manner called the ‘leading men of the fathers’, doubtless
because through the perfection of their own life and teaching, they rule
even over those who, through their devotion to pious duty, have
earned the name ‘Fathers’ in the Church by living more exaltedly and
going beyond the general commandments of the Law. They gave gold,
silver and priestly garments as voluntary offerings: in gold there is the
shine of wisdom; in silver, the brilliance of eloquence; in priestly
garments, works of righteousness far transcending the habits of the [260]
common people and fitting alone for hearts which are priestly and
consecrated to the Lord. For the desirable treasure rests in the mouth
of the wise,"' and The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried
by fire,^ and May your priests clothe themselves in righteousness.^ The
leading men of the fathers offer gold, silver, and priestly garments
according to their means towards the expenses of the work of the

1 2 Thess. 3:8-9.

2 That is, the ones whose example they have recognized.

3 1 Cor. 6:12.

4 Prov. 21:20.

5 Ps. 12:6 (11:7).

6Ps. 132:9 (131:9).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

temple when holy men apply whatever wisdom, eloquence, and 7750/
good deeds they possess by utilizing them appropriately in the building
up of the faithful of Christ. Now a fixed weight of gold and silver and
a fixed number of priestly garments is included in Sacred History so
that, in accordance with the preceding account of the number of
vessels, men, and animals,^ we might bear in mind that the Lord always
knows all our thoughts, words, and actions, and repays them with a
worthy reward.

Along with this, it should be noted how much the injustice of
captivity and prolonged servitude profited God’s people. For those
who were taken prisoner in a very small number (that is, four thou¬
sand six hundred souls of men, as Jeremiah writes),^ the rest having
been either killed, scattered far and wide through fear of the enemy,
or else perhaps left behind in the homeland through the enemy’s
mercy, now returned home once their number among the enemy had
grown to nearly fifty thousand men. Those who were carried off into
exile stripped of riches and made equal in servitude now return not
only liberated but also enriched with gold, silver, garments, slaves,
possessions, and livestock. Above all, those who lost their homeland
on behalf of a multiplicity of false gods, so much so that the prophet
rebuked them and said. For according to the number of your cities were
your gods, Oh Judah,^ now returned home not only rejoicing in the
faith of the one true God, but also cherishing that very faith together
with a single devotion of heart and soul and applying themselves to
singing praises with a religious mind and tongue to such an extent that
those who had formerly been known because of the diversity of their
religion by the different names Israel and Judah were now because of
11151 the unity of their devotion all called by the ancient name Israel.
For in a foreign land among enemies given to idolatry, they recalled
to mind the true practice of devotion which they had spurned in the
Holy Land, despite the warnings uttered by the prophets and the
examples of righteousness that they gave. So what is to be pondered
in these events, what is to be committed to memory? Surely that those
whom freedom and plenty in their own land had made careless and
forgetful of God’s commandments, were the very people whom
[261 ] slavery and poverty in a foreign country led back to worship of their

1 In Ezr. 1.466-72, 559-67, 688-96.

2 Jer. 52:30.

3 Jer. 2:28.

BOOK ONE

Creator and Liberator. It is, in fact, a common occurrence that the
human heart is made dissolute by wealth and freedom, but is led back
to itself by hardship and poverty. Thus, what occurred once for a single
people takes place on a daily basis amidst all those who repent after
committing sins: those who through negligence have fallen into the
temptations and snares of the devil rise again with divine help through
the exercise of penance; those who were stripped of the riches of the
virtues by the ancient enemy and have abandoned the society of the
Church often return to her fellowship practised in greater virtues than
those they had previously lost. For clearly the more they recall how
seriously they went astray, the more ardent is their zeal to exert them¬
selves in good works.^

[2:70] So from the people the priests and the Levites and the singers
and the gatekeepers and the Nathinnites dwelt in their cities, and all
Israel in their cities. He says ‘all Israel’, not the ten tribes alone which
were once called Israel to distinguish them from the two tribes which
were called Judah,^ but all 7800/ in general who had gone up from the
captivity, whether they took their origin from Judah and Benjamin or
from the other tribes. For when the ten tribes were deported to Assyria
and their land was repopulated with Samaritans,^ those who had been
left behind forsook and broke all the images and began to serve the
Lord wholeheartedly and to make their sacrificial offerings in the
temple.In this way they manifestly proved the Chronicles right in
which it is written: Therefore Josiah removed all the detestable idols
from all the territories belonging to the children of Israel, and he caused
all who remained in Israel to serve the Lord their God. As long as he
lived, they did not draw back from the Lord, the God of their fathers.^
And a little earlier under the same king when the restoration of the
Lord’s house was being considered: And he received, it says, the money

1 Bede takes the optimistic view that the pitfalls of sin can sometimes have an advan¬
tageous effect by prompting the Christian to strive to attain a greater state of holiness.
As he puts it in his commentary on James, ‘.. .one ought more to rejoice in temptations
the more definitely evident it is that on those whom he loves God often places a heavier
burden of temptations, that through the training of temptations they may be proven
perfect in the faith' - Epist. Cath. (187.154-59); trans. Hurst 13. Cf. In Ezr. 1.850-57,
1491-1502; and 2.683-707,1517-30.

2 Cf. In Ezr. 1.338-59.

3 Cf. 2 Kings 17:1-24.

4 Cf. 2 Kings 23:4-14, 24.

5 2 Chron. 34:33.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

which had been brought into the house of the Lord, and which the
Levites who were the gatekeepers had gathered together from the people
of Manasseh and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, and from all
Judah and Benjamin, and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then they
gave it into the hands of those appointed to supervise the workmen in
the Lord’s house.^

Those, therefore, who remained were sent as captives to Babylonia
at the same time as the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, to whom they
had been joined, and were sent back together to their homeland and
each one to their own cities, which, when they entered them, they had
discovered were empty of farms and dwellings; for no farmer had
entered those cities nor the lands of the two tribes while they were
enslaved in Babylonia, as Scripture says: If anyone had escaped from
the sword he was taken to Babylon and there became a servant to the
king and his sons until the king of the Persians came to power. And the
word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah was fulfilled, and the land
[262] enjoyed its sabbath rests; for all the days o//825/ its desolation it kept a
sabbath, until seventy years were completed.^ And so when this very
lengthy sabbath was over, the land of Judea took back its inhabitants
with the remaining Israelites. But the greater part of the ten tribes,
which had been exiled by the Assyrians beyond the mountains of the
Medes, never returned home; had it done so, it would not have been
able to enter its cities, possessed as they were by the Samaritans.
Regarding this, Jews today^ assure themselves in a very Jewish and
unfaithful manner that when their anointed one'* comes and estab¬
lishes his reign they too, along with the other people of their nation,
will return to Judea and will rule over the whole world. For they fail
to understand the words of the prophets, who promised the kingdom
and riches of God’s city Jerusalem not in a carnal sense to the one
people of Judea but in a spiritual sense to all peoples in Christ, some¬
thing which is now being done throughout the world. Let these few
words be enough about the surface meaning of the text.^

1 2 Chron. 34:9-10.

2 2 Chron. 36:20-21.

3 See below, In Ezr. 1.1403 and the accompanying note.

4 christo suo: cf. In Ezr. 1.154-55. The Latin christiis is for Jews a designation, not
for the person Jesus of Nazareth, but for the ‘anointed one’ or messiah foretold by the
Old Testament prophets.

5 superficie litterae. A technical term in Latin biblical exegesis, superficies litterae

BOOK ONE

According to the spiritual sense, however, the priests, Levites,
singers, gatekeepers, and the Nathinnites returning from Babylon
dwell in their towns and all of Israel in their cities when ministers of
the holy altar and teachers and even the common people of God them¬
selves, each of them in their own station, faithfully serve God, whether
they are those who have been corrected through penance when some¬
times they have defiled or lost that station by sins, or whether they are
those who have recently come to the Church from the devil’s kingdom
and have won for themselves a good station by ministering well3 The
Levites or children of Israel entered their cities, not only those who
had previously lost these same cities when they were captured, but also
those who had been born from the stock of the captives and learned
that they belonged to those cities 7850/ by paternal succession. Thus
also in the spiritual sense, a Levite regains his own city from which he
was deported by the Chaldeans when some deacon^ of the Holy
Church with the Lord’s help recovers the virtue of perfection which
he had lost, seduced as he was by the devil. Lor instance, he who was
made unworthy of the station he had received because of drunken¬
ness, concupiscence, or pride returns once more to the same station in
a more worthy state through continence, moderation, humility, and
the remaining traits of a more correct life. On the other hand, a Levite
who was born in Babylon comes to the land of Judea and enters his
city when a person who has been reborn in Christ sheds the guilt of
original sin and, after being properly instituted in the Church, guards
by regular discipline^ the station of deacon he has received. Lor just as
he too was freed through his Redeemer’s grace from Chaldean servi-

(literally, the ‘surface of the letter’) is simply another denotation for the literal or histor¬
ical level of meaning, from which the other senses (allegory, tropological, anagogical)
derive. Hence, in On the Song of Songs, Bede could write, ‘But since we have already
drawn a few things together from the surface meaning of the text (de superficie litterae),
let us now turn to write of the meanings that can be extracted from the allegory.’ - In
Cant. 1 (221.405-06).

1 Cf. 1 Tim. 3:13.

2 Patristic authors commonly traced the origin of the deaconate to the Old Testament
Levites, aligning the ecclesiastical offices of bishop, priest, and deacon with the tripar¬
tite Judaic hierarchy of high priest, presbyter, and Levite: see, for example, Isidore
Etymologiae 7.12.16-24. Holder 1999: 391-92, has treated the theme, noting Bede’s
usage in the present passage.

3 ‘by regular discipline’ = regulari moderamine: cf. In Ezr. 1.634-35 and the accom¬
panying note.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

tude, so to speak, in the same way through the practice of the good
works in which his predecessors of the same station lived he ascends
to the walls, as it were, of his own city. However, all those children of
Israel who were taken away as captives and never returned to their
homeland but rather abandoned their cities and farms to be possessed
[263] by others, assuredly designate the errors of those who by sinning so
withdraw from the Church that they never recover their senses by
repenting but rather abandon the rewards that have been promised to
them to be taken over by others who are worthy of them. To one of
these, or rather to everyone, the Lord recommends penance, saying in
the Apocalypse: Remember from where you have fallen. Repent and
do the things you did at first, or else I will come to you and will remove
7875/ your lampstand from its place, unless you do penance.^ On the
other hand, to another who stands firm in the faith he suggests to
prevent his fall: Behold I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have,
so that no one may take your crown.^

[3:1] And now the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel
were in their cities; so the people gathered together as one man in
Jernsalem. The seventh month, which we call October, was more than
all the other months solemn with the observance of ceremonies
according to the Law, and was also the time when the dedication of
the temple was celebrated.^ It was thus appropriate to the devotion of
the faithful who had come up from the captivity that, as soon as they
had individually entered their own cities with the livestock and money
they had brought with them and there built homes suitable for them¬
selves and their families, they should all presently gather together in
Jerusalem and construct an altar there for offering holocausts to God,
and this at the time of year when this temple was originally consecrated
with the altar and all of its vessels and when they had been accustomed
to come there every year for the day of this consecration. In a higher
sense, however, the seventh month suggests the grace of the Holy
Spirit, which is described as sevenfold in the prophet Isaiah and in the

1 Rev. 2:5.

2 Rev. 3:11.

3 Cf. Bede DTR 11 (313.24-26); also Horn. 2.24 (363.187-94). In Hebrew tradition
the seventh month, Tishri, contained a number of important holy days and festivals,
such as the Feast of Tabernacles, the Day of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement: see
Grabbe 1998: 16.

BOOK ONE

Apocalypse of Saint John.^ We come together in Jerusalem in this
month from our cities after captivity when, after the stains and errors
of the vices have been washed away, and after the defences of good
works have been begun, we are illuminated by the greater grace of the
same Spirit and set ablaze with the love of heavenly peace, which
resides in true unity; for Jerusalem, to be sure, means ‘vision of
peace’.^ And it is well said that in the seventh month all of Israel gath¬
ered in Jerusalem as one man. 7900/ For this occurs daily in the spiritual
IsraeP when, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, all the elect
throughout the world worship God with one and the same faith, and
aspire with one no less equal love to the joys of everlasting peace and
happiness and imitate these things, insofar as they can even in this life,
by loving and being patient with one another. Moreover, it is fittingly
added:

[3:2] And Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up, with his brethren the priests,
and Zerubbabel son of Sheaitiel with his brethren, and they built the
altar of the God of Israel, that they might offer holocausts upon it, as [264]
is written in the law of Moses the man of God. For they employed
Jeshua and Zerubbabel as the masters for the work of divine worship.

Both men, as we have said above,"* fulfil one and the same figure of
our Ford and Saviour - Jeshua in view of his priesthood, Zerubbabel
in view of his kingship, since the former descended from priestly stock,
while the other descended from royal stock. Now the true king of Israel
(i.e. of all ‘who see God’^) is our Ford. He is also the true priest
according to the order of Melchizedek^ - a priest because he cleanses
us from our sins’ through the sacrificial offering of his body and even

1 Is. 11:2-3; Rev. 1:4; cf. Bede De tempi. 2 (202.406-18).

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72;121.9-10).

3 in spiritali Israhel. The early Christian Church claimed to be the new or ‘spiritual’
Israel that replaced the old or ‘carnal’ Israel who had abandoned Christ. Augustine, in
Book 3 of On Christian Doctrine, defines the spiritual Israel as ‘...not one people but
all to whose fathers there was promise in their seed, which is Christ’ - De doctrina Chris¬
tiana 3.34.47 (CCSL 32:109.71-73). Elsewhere, Bede identifies it with both the Christian
people - Horn. 1.17 (124. 203-04) - and the Church - In Sam. 3 (174.1595). See further
Exp. Act. 1 (8.66-67); Retract. Act. 3 (121.66-75); In Gen. 3 (169.953-57); and De tab. 1
(11.236^3).

4 In Ezr. 1.522-26.

5 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:75.21).

6 Ps. 110:4 (109:4).

7 Cf. Rev. 1:5.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

now, after his passion and ascension, intercedes for us at the right hand
of the Father;^a king because even in the present life he arms us for
spiritual warfare and helps us to prevail and grants an everlasting
kingdom in the future to those who win the battle.

Now not only Jeshua and Zerubbabel but their brethren were also
in charge with them of the building of the temple, those brethren,
doubtless, about whom our same king and priest said when he
appeared after the glory of his resurrection to the women who were
seeking him: 7925/ Go, tell my brethren? These brethren (namely all
those who are higher in the Church and who adhere more intimately
to their Redeemer) build his house with him when, with his help, they
strengthen the hearts of the faithful with their words and examples.
And it is well that he calls the brethren of Jeshua ‘priests’. For the
Apostle Peter says to the whole Church: You are a chosen people, a
royal priesthood^ likewise John in the Apocalypse says concerning the
whole Church: Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resur¬
rection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be
priests of God and of Christ.'^ For when all of the elect are members of
the most high priest, when they present their own members as a living
sacrifice,^ when they give their own spirit to God as a contrite offering,®
they themselves also are rightly called by the deserved name of ‘broth¬
erhood’ and ‘priesthood’.’

Moreover, with the great foresight of religion, the descendants of
the exiles first of all built the altar of God so that, even though God’s
temple had not yet been founded, they could nonetheless have some¬
where where they could show the devotion of their mind by offering
holocausts and victims. We too perform this today in the Church in a
spiritual manner when above all we place faith in our Lord’s incarna¬
tion and passion in our heart and hand this faith over to our hearers
that it may be received before anything else and rooted in their inmost
heart, according to that saying of the Apostle which he spoke to the
[265] Corinthians still unlearned in Christ, saying: Fori resolved not to know

1 Rom. 8:34.

2 Matt. 28:10.

3 1 Pet. 2:9.

4 Rev. 20:6.

5 Rom. 12:1.

6 Ps. 51:19 (50:19).

7 Cf. In Ezr. 1.38-42.

BOOK ONE

anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified}
On this altar, we should offer our holocausts (i.e. perfect thoughts and
deeds) 7950/ since, to be sure, the votive offerings of our actions can
be pleasing to God the Father only if we participate in the sacraments
of our Redeemer and are enflamed by the power of his spirit, as if by
the fire of the most holy altar. For ‘holocaust means something wholly
burnt-up’.^ By this name they called those sacrifices and offerings from
which it was commanded that nothing be left for human use but that
everything be given to God and consumed in the sacred fire.
Mystically, these offerings denote the way of life of those faithful who,
seeking nothing of their own, devote their entire life to the servitude
of the internal judge. They not only rejoice to trample down the pleas¬
ures of their own soul and body for the Ford but also to lay down the
soul itself for him and can say with the apostles: Behold, we have
forsaken everything, and followed you. What then shall we have?^ The
Ford himself said in reply to these people: And everyone who has left
home or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or
lands for my name’s sake will receive a hundred times as much and will
possess everlasting life.’' This holocaust of a more continent and more
hallowed way of life must be offered on the altar of the God of Israel
because, as we have said, only through the faith of our Redeemer can
our good works be acceptable to God the Father. For Diogenes and
those like-minded followers of his foolish philosophy, although they
had abandoned their own belongings and were living a bare and
meagre way of life in the world, were not following the Ford.^ They

1 1 Cor. 2:2.

2 Gregory Homiliae in Ezechielem 2.8.16 (CCSL 142:348.456-7).

3 Matt. 19:27.

4 Matt. 19:29.

5 Diogenes of Sinope (also known as Diogenes the Cynic) was one of the followers
of the Cynic school of philosophy, founded in Athens by Antisthenes around 400 BC.
The Cynics espoused a philosophy of moderation and self-denial and so would appear,
as Bede implies here, to have shared common ground with the monks and ascetics of
the early Christian period, save that they did not know Christ. Bede makes the very
same point about Diogenes again in his homily for the feast of Benedict Biscop: Tor it
is unquestionably foolish to follow Plato, Diogenes and certain other philosophers in
trampling underfoot the riches of this life, and not to do this in order to secure eternal
life, but merely to grasp after the empty praise of mortal men’ - Horn. 1.13 (CCSL
122:88.8-12). Bede’s dismissiveness here towards the secular culture of the ancient
world is typical of his attitude elsewhere. Though he borrows from secular writers such
as Virgil, arguing with Augustine that it is acceptable to take what is useful from pagan

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

did, indeed, appear to offer a holocaust but not on the altar of the God
of Israel, since they kept themselves aloof from their own pleasures
but did not know that they had Jesus Christ 7975/ as an advocate with
the FatherJ Fittingly it adds about this altar:

[3:3] And they set the altar of God upon its bases, because they were
in fear of the peoples of the lands around them, and they offered a
holocaust to the Lord upon it morning and evening. For the bases of
the altar are the hearts of the elect which are prepared as it were by
the tools of craftsmen to receive the mysteries of the Lord’s faith by
the precepts of the teachers who went before. And it is fitting that there
is one altar but several bases supporting it, because there is one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, and one God^ but many are the hearts of the
faithful which, having been taught by the single rule of truth as though
they had been brought together into the same bosom, carry the burden
[266] of the heavenly mysteries with a common devotion.^ Otherwise,
anyone who entrusts the mysteries of the faith to those who have been
insufficiently instructed and are not yet endeavouring to abandon their
past sins is like one who places the Lord’s altar on the ground without
its bases, surrendering the things of heaven to minds which are still
earthly. Now this accords with that passage in the Gospel where the
Lord says: Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but
they put it upon a stand, that it may give light to everyone in the house]
For just as the Lord is rightly called an altar since he cleanses us from
our transgressions because, receiving the offerings of our prayers, he
commends them to the Father, in the same way he can be not inap¬
propriately called a lamp, since he placed the light of his eternal
divinity in the vessel of the humanity that he had assumed.
Furthermore, the bases are put under the altar and the lampstand is
put under the lamp when all the faithful submit their own hearts and

literature, he is always careful to warn his readers about the dangers involved. As he
states in On Samuel. ‘It is safer to seek out salutary guidance in apostolic pages than in
Platonic ones’ - In Sam. 2 (121.2218-19). Cf. In Ezr. 2.1589-93 and 3.2083-88. For
discussion of Bede’s wary attitude towards classical culture, see Carroll 1946: 41^3;
Bonner 1973: 76-83; and Brown 1996: 11-14; on the monastic tone of this passage, see
DeGregorio 2005.

1 1 John 2:1.

2 Eph. 4:5-6.

3 On the theme of unity in diversity in Bede’s exegesis, see Holder 1991: 145-50.

4 Matt. 5:15.

BOOK ONE

bodies 71000/ with humble determination to practise through their
works what they believe.

But when it was said that they arranged the altar on its bases, it was
fittingly added because they were in fear of the peoples of the lands
around them, because simultaneously with the devout undertakings of
those faithful to God, the opposition of the wicked (either spirits or
men) who strive to prevent good work from being accomplished will
appear. Consequently, such ones are rightly called ‘peoples of the
lands’ to distinguish them from those who say: But our dwelling is in
heaven} Yet, however much the peoples of the lands may frighten
them, it is necessary that the citizens of the heavenly city persist in the
works of the virtues that they have begun, for there follows: and they
offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord morning and evening. For we
offer a holocaust to the Lord on his altar when, with the complete
devotion to his faith established in our hearts, we attend to good
actions. And we do this morning and evening when we clearly
remember that we both have received from him the beginnings of
salvation-giving intention^ and cannot complete the good works we
have begun without the help of his grace. And so we make offerings
of thanks to him in all things with an ardent desire to live in a devout
way.^ Likewise, we offer a holocaust in the morning when, having
received the light of spiritual understanding, we repay our Creator in
our turn by living well; and we offer a holocaust in the evening when,
for the sake of the eternal repose that we hope we are going to receive
from him after doing good works, we burn with unending zeal.
According to the literal sense, we can rightly understand that we offer
a holocaust to the Lord morning and evening when we take such care
at every moment to be pleasing in the sight of his divine majesty 71025/

1 Phil. 3:20.

2 ‘beginnings of salvation-giving intention’ = initia salutiferae intentionis. Bede
follows Augustine in holding that every work of virtue the Christian performs is effected,
and indeed completed, by God’s grace. As he states in On I Peter, ‘For no one by dint
of his own freedom can manage to be kept in good, but in everything we must seek the
help of him from whom we have received the beginnings of good action if we are to
bring it to completion’ - Epist. Cath. (227.93-95); trans. Hurst 72-73. On this theme, see
Carroll 1946; 140-44.

3 ‘to live in a devout way’ = desiderio piae conversationis. Conversatio is the word
translated as ‘dwelling’ in the quotation above from Phil. 3:20. The word is important
in Benedictine monasticism. the monk taking the vow of conversatio morum, ‘conver¬
sion of manners’: see Regida Benedicti 58.17 (ed. Fry 268).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

that, arising at daybreak, we do not proceed to attend to the necessi¬
ties of human frailty before, being enflamed with the fire of divine love,
we commend ourselves to the Lord with devout prayers, according to
him who says. In the morning my prayer shall come before youf and
[267] similarly, when we have completed our daily work, do not give sleep
to our eyes nor slumber to our eyelids^ before we consecrate a place
to the Lord in ourselves with an even more assiduous constancy of
praying,^ according to that saying which the same prophet says: Let my
prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be
like an evening sacrificed

[3:4] And they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and
offered the holocaust on each individual day in due order according
to the commandment: the duty of the day in its day.^ The Feast of
Tabernacles, which in the GospeE is called by the Greek word
scenopegia (i.e. the fixing of tents),’ was a seven-day feast beginning
on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,* on which the Lord
commanded all the people to make tabernacles for themselves from
the leaves and branches of the most beautiful wood and, leaving their
homes, to stay in these tabernacles for seven days, daily pondering the

1 Ps. 88:13 (87:14).

2 Cf. Ps. 132:4-5 (131:4-5).

3 orationum instantia. Cf. Regula Benedicti prol. 4 (ed. Fry 158-59): ‘First of all, every
time you begin a good work, you must pray to him most earnestly to bring it to perfec¬
tion’ (‘In primis, ut quicquid agendum inchoas bonum, ab eo perfici instantissima
oratione deposcas’). Cf. In Ezr. 3.466-73,1265-66.

4 Ps. 141:2 (140:2). For Bede’s views on prayer, see DeGregorio 1999: 15-39.

5 The phrase ‘the duty of the day in its day’ (opus diet in die suo) is, according to
Grabbe 1998:17, an allusion to Num. 29:12-39, which details the specific sacrifices that
were to be offered on each day of the Feast. Bede reads these sacrifices tropologically
by aligning them with the corporeal works of mercy: see below In Ezr. 1.1078-82.

6 Cf. John 1‘2 and Ex. 23:16; also Isidore Etymologiae 6.18.9. One of ancient Israel’s
three great annual feasts, the Feast of Tabernacles (called the ‘Feast of Ingathering’ in
Ex. 23:16 and the ‘Feast of Booths’ in Deut. 16:13-15) was associated with autumn
harvest and, like Passover, served to commemorate the Israelites' sojourn in the wilder¬
ness: see Jenny 2000. For the meaning of ‘tabernacle’ in this context, see the next note.

1 fixio tabernaculorum. Tabernacuhim here means ‘tent’ or ‘dwelling’ - in the present
context, particularly ones constructed from interwoven leafy branches. As part of this
Feast, the practice of living in such temporary shelters was, as Bede explains, intended
to commemorate the wilderness experience after the Exodus: see McKenzie 1965:
862-64.

8 Cf. Lev. 23:34-43.

BOOK ONE

decrees of the divine law and offering holocausts to the Lord in fired
They were commanded to do all this, lest thanks for such a great
blessing ever depart from their mind, in remembrance of the time in
which they once made their exodus from Egypt and dwelt in taberna¬
cles in the wilderness, and while Moses preached the law and the divine
presence frequently appeared to him, they waited a long time for the
day when they would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. 71050/

And so as those people who had come up from Babylon were making
their way to Jerusalem, since they had been inflamed by a wondrously
devout love to carry out all the Lord’s commandments, they took care
to celebrate this feast as well, in the way in which he specifies for their
assembly on the fifteenth day,^ performing on each day of the week
those things that were commanded by the law. It befits us to do the
same with equal devotion in a spiritual sense. Lor we too went out from
servitude in Egypt through the blood of a lamb that we might come to
the Promised Land when, baptized into the sacrament of the Lord’s
passion, we shook off the heavy yoke of transgression in order that,
after being adopted into the freedom of the glory of the children of God,
we would be heirs of the kingdom of Heaven.^ We stayed in taberna¬
cles and tents travelling for a long time through the desert until we
should come to our homeland when, renouncing in baptism not only
Satan (as it were the king of Egypt, i.e. of darkness)'* but also all his
pomp and the works of this present age,^ we promised that we should [268]
be as pilgrims and wayfarers in this world but citizens of that other life

1 Cf. Num. 29:12-39.

2 Cf. Num. 29:12.

3 Rom. 8:21.

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:143.29-30).

5 An allusion to the liturgical rites surrounding the ceremony of Baptism: cf. In Ezr.
1.1377-86, and 2.917-24, 1400-05. Renunciation of Satan (abrenuntiatio Satanae) and
all his works had become part of the baptismal liturgy by the early Christian centuries
and is mentioned in a variety of early patristic writings as well as in the Gelasian and
Roman Sacramentaries, though it is uncertain, since no liturgical evidence from early
Anglo-Saxon England has survived, whether or how well Bede knew the latter. At any
rate, he was evidently familiar with some form of baptismal liturgy in which the renun¬
ciation of Satan played a part. Before entering the holy font, catechumens were expected
to renounce Satan and all his works as evidence of their desire to abandon their old ways
and to begin their new life in Christ. For further discussion, see Warren 1912: 57; Riley
1974: 22-139; and Cubitt 1995: 135-37. On baptism in early Anglo-Saxon England
specifically, see Foot 1992.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

which we hope for from the Lord. In remembrance of this hope and
promise we ought to dwell in tabernacles in the seventh month (that
is, while the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is described as sevenfold,^
illuminates us), to desert this world with our whole mind as if it were
something foreign and barren, and to hasten with a fixed resolve to
the unfading joys of paradise. And it behoves us to do this incessantly
for seven days (i.e. for the whole period of our present life which is
accomplished in as many days),^ and 71075/ on each of these seven days
we ought without ceasing to offer ‘a holocaust’ and ‘the duty of the
day in its day’ - namely a holocaust (that is, an entirely burnt-up
offering) in regard to those things that properly pertain to divine
service, such as prayers and fasting; and the duty of the day in its day
in regard to those things that pertain to the service of brotherly love,
such as ministering bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing
to the cold, hospitality to the pilgrim, care to the sick, burial to the
dead, doctrine to the erring, and comfort to the mournful.^

And when he said that they made a holocaust on each individual
day according to the conunandment, as the day required, he rightly
interjected in due order, no doubt because anything in the service of
either divine or brotherly love that is performed in a disorderly fashion
loses the merit of its perfection. For the honour of a king loves judge¬
ment f for whatever tasks we devoutly carry out in honour of the most
high king, we certainly must distinguish through discerning judgement

1 Is. 11:2-3.

2 Cf. In Ezr. 1.23-24, 2.726-28, and 3.1213-17. The notion that human life runs the
course of seven days is explained more fully in Bede’s The Reckoning of Time. In
Chapter 10, entitled ‘The Week of the World Ages’, Bede draws an analogy between
the seven days of the week and the Seven World Ages, in which he implies that Saturday,
the seventh day or Sabbath, represents a sabbath rest of the saints in heaven, while
Sunday, the day following the Sabbath, stands for a new unending eighth age in which
the saved reign eternally with Christ, an idea drawn ultimately from the final chapter
of Augustine’s City of God - see Bede DTR 10 (310.1-312.59) and 71 (542.1-544.97);
and Augustine De civitate Dei 22.30 (CCSL 48:865.124-866.148). Moreover, at the
beginning of Chapter 66 of The Reckoning of Time, Bede develops the analogy between
the ‘ages of man' and the ‘ages of the world’, thus connecting, implicitly at least, the
week to both the World Ages and Ages of Man: for discussion, see Wallis’s commen¬
tary, pp. 280, 353-66 and 373-74.

3 This passage on good works can perhaps be read as Bede’s expansion of Matt.
25:35^6 and Regula Benedicti 4.13-19, 53.1, and 72.8 (ed. Fry 182, 254—56, and 294),
which together underpin the Christian conception of the corporeal works of mercy.

4 Ps. 99:4 (98:4)

BOOK ONE

when or to what extent we should carry them out so that we do not,
by performing our righteous work in a less than orderly manner,
corrupt the standard of his righteousness. Paul suggested that we ought
to celebrate this Feast of Tabernacles (i.e. scenopegia) in a mystical
way when, in the midst of his preaching, he used to make time for the
art of tent-making: for he used to make scenomata (i.e. tents) in order
to teach that he was himself an inhabitant of this world and yet a
pilgrim in it as well, and to educate those whom he was instructing that
they must be travelling in this life but expecting and hoping for their
homeland in the life to come.^ For when travelling or making journeys
we are accustomed to use tents.^ The same Apostle testifies that the
saints do this in this life when he says: 71100/ While we are in the body
we are travelling apart from the Lordf and to the Hebrews: For here
we do not have a lasting city but we are looking for the city that is to
corned But since those who entirely turn their minds away from the
world and faithfully confess that they are citizens of the homeland
which is on high immediately open an entrance in themselves for all
the virtues, it is rightly added:

[3:5] And after these a continual holocaust on the Kalends and on all
the feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and on all in which a
voluntary offering was made to God. He calls a holocaust ‘continual’
that was offered morning and evening. By ‘Kalends’ he means the
beginnings of the months, that is the appearance of the new moon from
which the Hebrews always began the months inasmuch as they had no
months except lunar ones.^ Hence instead of ‘Kalends’ the Greeks use
the better word neonieniae, that is, new moons. Now if the months, by
reason of the thirty days by which they are fulfilled, stand for the full¬
ness of works of light whenever, in the faith of the Holy Trinity, we
carry out the precepts of the Decalogue, what else do the beginnings
of the months designate, in which the moon, in order that it might give

1 Cf. Acts 18:3. Bede offers a similar comment on Paul and tent-making at In Cant.
4 (244.29-38).

2 Cf. In Ezr. 2.1080-81.

3 2 Cor. 5:6.

4 Heb. 13:14.

5 The Jewish month was heavily dependent on the phases of the moon, with the
months extending from one new moon to another. For more on the Jewish month, see
DTR 11 (312.1- 319.110), with Wallis’s commentary, pp. 281-84; on the kalends, see
DTR 13 (325.1-327.30).

[269]

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

light to us anew, is said to be newly kindled by the sun,^ except the start
of each good work, a start that we perceive by the grace of our Creator
as though by the presence of the sun of righteoiisnessl^ To signify this
divine illumination, without which we can neither begin nor complete
any good thing, the Lord ordered that ah the Kalends (that is, the
beginnings of the months) be observed by carrying out ceremonies of
animal sacrifices. Hence there is that saying of the psalmist: Blow on
your trumpet at the beginning of the month, on the special day of your
111251 feastf which is to say openly: "Rejoice in the Lord‘d you who are
righteous, and proclaim the word of instruction to your neighbours as
soon as you consider that you have been thought worthy by him to do
good work in the special light of his internal inspiration through which
it is proper that you be called away from the lust of this world and
devote your time to divine matters in a higher way’.^

Fittingly, therefore, is it stated that when the Feast of Tabernacles
was over, the descendants of the exiles kept making a continual holo¬
caust on the Kalends and on all the feasts of the Lord that were
consecrated, and on all in which a voluntary offering was made to God.
For after the mind has completely renounced this world once and for
ah, it should continually devote itself entirely to compliance with the
divine will (which we have said a holocaust designates); and it should
do this both at the beginning of every good action and during the
devout practice of those virtues which the Lord has commanded as

1 Cf. In Ezr. 2.916. The idea that the moon’s light is really reflected sunlight is
discussed by Bede in On the Nature of Things - see DNR 20 (211.1-213.13). Jones, in
his edition of the text (CCSL 123A:211), lists Pliny Historia naturalis 2.10.56-57 and
2.16.80 and Isidore De natura rerum 18.3-6 (ed. Fontaine, pp. 238^5) as Bede’s sources.
Furthermore, the analogy between the sun/moon and divine power/human virtue is a
patristic commonplace: e.g. Ambrose Hexameron 4.8.32 (CSEL 32:137.18-138.20);
Jerome In Esaiam 9.30.26 (CCSL 73:395.17-31); Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos
10.3 (CCSL38:75.1-76.61), 60.8 (CCSL 39:770.22-29) and 103.19 (CCSL40:1516.1-22);
Gregory Moralia in Job 34.14.25 (CCSL 143B:1750.10-22); and Isidore De natura rerum
18.5-6 (ed. Fontaine, pp. 242^4).

2 Mai. 4:2; cf. In Ezr. 2.931 and 3.1025. Throughout his writings, Bede identifies
Malachi’s ‘sun of righteousness’ as Jesus: e.g. In Gen. 2 (127.1938^2); In Cant. 3
(253.334-37); In Hab. (387.188-89); De tab. 3 (112.766-72); De tempi. 1 (161.580-84);
Horn. 2.15 (287.261-64).

3 Ps. 81:3 (80:4).

4 Phil. 3:1.

5 There is word-play here in Bede’s use of avocari, ‘to be called away from’ and
vacare, ‘to devote time to’.

BOOK ONE

well as in those by which the pious mind, in addition to the general
commandments, rejoices to serve the Lord voluntarily. On such
matters the Lord himself does not give an order but offers counsel
when he says: If you wish to be perfect, go sell what you havef and when
he was arguing concerning celibacy he did not give an order but only
advice, saying: The one who can accept this should accept it} Moreover,

Paul too was boasting about those things which he had offered to the
Lord as a voluntary service when he said: Don’t we have the right to
eat and drink? Don’t we have the right to take around with us a sister
or wife, as do the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and [270]
Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who do not have the right to do
this?,^ and the rest 71150/ of the passage.

[3:6] And from the first day of the seventh month they began to offer
a holocaust to the Lord. It has been said more than once that the
seventh month stands for the sevenfold enlightenment of spiritual
grace.'* So now it is well said that from the first day of the seventh
month they began to offer a holocaust to the Lord, doubtless because
from the very beginning of divine inspiration, human conscience must
be transformed and, as it neglects the delights of the lowest level, burn
to think and do only those things which are the Lord’s. Is it not true
that from the first day of the seventh month (that is, from the first illu¬
mination of divine grace) they [the Apostles] were offering holocausts
of virtues to the Lord? Lor when the Holy Spirit came upon them in
tongues of fire,^ immediately, as though transformed from what they
had been before, they began to burn with new torches of a now inti¬
mate love and to preach the wonderful works of God in the tongues
of all nations, and they were so dedicated through this holocaust -
indeed they themselves became a holocaust - that it would have been
easier for them to be killed by those who had opposing beliefs than it
would have been for them to be called away from their purpose. Lor
this reason this same seventh month is deservedly called among the
Hebrews the ‘New Year’,® indicating to us by its name that it is given

1 Matt. 19:21.

2 Matt. 19:12.

3 1 Cor. 9:4-6.

4 Cf. In Ezr. 1.891.

5 Cf. Acts 2:3-11.

6 See DTR 11 (313.24—26), where Bede explains that the Jewish New Year began in
September ‘...because then the harvest is gathered and special festivities held'; trans.
Wallis 42.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

to the faithful through the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they might
have the strength to fulfil the new commandment of mutual love and
to proclaim a new song of heavenly praise in the construction of the
Lord’s house. Regarding the observance of this month, the Lord mysti¬
cally commanded as follows: In the seventh month, on the first day of
the month, there will be for you a memorial sabbath with trumpet blasts,
and it shall be called holy. You shall do no servile work on it, and you
shall offer a holocaust to the Lord.^ 71175/ For there will be a memo¬
rial sabbath (i.e. a rest) on the first day of this month when the mind,
enflamed by divine influence, abstains from worldly enticements and
exerts itself in contemplating God’s will. The priests blow the trum¬
pets when the faithful work hard to preach to their neighbours also
that glow of internal sweetness which they have begun.^ No servile
work is performed on such a sabbath when, to please God, the mind
keeps itself free from every pleasure and infection of sin, insofar as it
is possible in this life. For sin is servile work because he who sins is
surely a servant of sin;^ and for this reason a holocaust is rightly offered
to the Lord on this Sabbath, no doubt because he whose whole heart
[271 ] burns with the fire of heavenly love is truly made free from the servi¬
tude of sin.

As to the literal meaning, it should be noted that in the seventh
month it is reported that the people met in Jerusalem and there, when
they had all gathered together, that Jeshua and Zerubbabel along with
their brethren built an altar and from the first day of the seventh month
offered a holocaust to the Lord. One thus infers that this altar was
assembled very hastily from unpolished stones and not skilfully made
from wood and covered with plates of brass, as was once customary.'^
For even with a very huge crowd of builders there, the altar could not
have been completed and prepared for offering a holocaust on it on
one and the same day on which it was begun. For in the Book of

1 Lev. 23:24-25.

2 ‘which they have begun’ = quam coeperint. It is possible that the latter could be a
misspelling of quam ceperint ‘which they have acquired’.

3 John 8:34.

4 In biblical tradition, altars are not natural objects but built structures whose
construction varied from one context to another; the materials employed included earth,
stone, wood, brass, and gold: see Nakhai 2000. Bede’s mention of an altar made from
wood and brass recalls the altar of holocaust of the Tabernacle, discussed at length in
De tab. 2 (76.1359-84.1663).

BOOK ONE

Maccabees too it is shown that the altar was made from stones,^ and
it is mentioned there that it was profaned by pagans and after six years
restored by Judas Maccabaeus: And they took, /1200/ it says, unhewn
stones according to the Law, and built a new altar on the model of the
previous one?

It should be noted too that the beginning of the fifth age of the
world, like the beginnings of the four preceding ages, is consecrated
with holocausts offered to the Lord.^ For in the first age, the blessed
protomartyr Abel, for the first time of all the elect, offered holocausts
to God from the firstborn of his sheep and from their fat and conse¬
crated the approach of the new age, at first with sacrifices of sheep and,
in the end, with his own blood/ Noah consecrated the arrival of the
second age when he offered holocausts to God from all the clean
animals that the ark had contained/ Melchizedek, the priest of God
the Most High, and the patriarch Abraham consecrated the third age,
the former with bread and wine, the latter with his own son offered to
God;'^ and Abraham likewise consecrated the very beginning of this
age when he entered the Promised Land and there built an altar and
called upon God’s name/ King David consecrated the fourth age to
the Lord by building an altar on the threshing floor of Oman the
Jebusite and offering holocausts to God so that he could placate his
wrath which he had provoked by taking a census of the people/ It is
in this place that Abraham is said to have once offered his son, and it
is well known that the altar of holocausts was later put here also when

1 1 Macc. 4:44.

2 1 Macc. 4:47.

3 The doctrine of the Six World Ages, which Bede derived from Augustine’s De civi-
tate Dei 22.30 (CCSL 48:865.124-866.148) and Isidore's Etymologiae 5.38-39, divides
world history into six periods during which the Christian is to labour in order to attain
rest in the seventh age when the soul is separated from the body: see In Ezr. 3.951-55
and 1986-91. The division corresponds to God’s creating the world in six days and
resting on the seventh. The doctrine appears throughout Bede’s writings, receiving its
most sustained treatment in DTR 66-71 (463.1 -544.98). See Wallis’s commentary, pp.
353-75, and the treatments of Jones 1969-70:191-98 and Siniscalco 1978.

4 Cf. Gen. 4:4-8.

5 Cf. Gen. 8:20.

6 Cf. Gen. 14:18; 22:1-13.

7 Cf. Gen. 12:7,13:4.1 have omitted from Bede’s sentence the word accepta (see line
1213), which is difficult to translate in the present context and may in fact be a corrup¬
tion.

8 2 Sam. 24:18-25 and 1 Chron. 21:18-28; cf. De tempi. 1 (159.504-160.529).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

the temple was built by Solomon.^ So now the high priest Jeshua son
of Jozadak and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel dedicated the beginning
of the fifth age when they built an altar in the same place and offered
holocausts to God, as soon as they had thrown off the yoke of long
captivity and returned to Jerusalem and henceforth endeavoured to
reconcile themselves to the Lord with a continual holocaust daily.

[272] 71225/ All these events prefigured him who, in the sixth age, would
come in the flesh and redeem the whole world by means of the sacri¬
fice of his own flesh and blood. Thus, after the altar had been built and
the holocausts offered to God, Scripture continues which says:

[3:6] But the foundation of the temple of God was not yet laid.
Typologically, in this passage, the founding of God’s temple holds a
figure of those who, recently converted to the faith, prepare a place or
abode in their heart and body for the Lord, as the Apostle says: Do
you not know that your limbs are the temple of the Holy Spirit, which
is in you'] and again: That by faith Christ dwells in your hearts?
Accordingly, those who when freed from captivity had come up to
Jerusalem had indeed arranged to build a temple, which, by their
labour, they eventually achieved, but first they built an altar and
commended themselves to the Lord with daily holocausts, so that in
this way being made more pure they might deserve to start the work
of building the temple. Likewise with respect to the spiritual edifice'^
too it is necessary in every way that whoever has decided to teach
others should first teach himself, and that he who aims to instruct his
neighbours to fear and love God should first make himself worthy for
the office of teacher by serving God more eagerly, lest by chance he
should hear from the Apostle: You, then, who teach others, do you not
teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?^ This
is why the Apostle says in regard to himself: But I chastise my body
and bring it into subjection, in case when preaching to others I myself
should be found wanting? Consequently, it is fitting that the descen¬
dants of the exiles /1250/ are found to have offered God no victims or

1 Cf. 2 Chron. 3:1.

2 1 Cor. 6:19.

3 Eph. 3:17.

4 spiritali aedificatione. Bede may be thinking here of Peter’s domus spiritalis (1 Pet.
2:5). For Bede’s comments on this verse, see Epist. Cath. (234.52-235.104).

5 Rom. 2:21. Cf. Epist. Cath. (202.14-17).

6 1 Cor. 9:27.

BOOK ONE

sacrifices other than holocausts (that is, wholly burnt-up offerings),
because whoever lives an evil life yet desires to teach others to refrain
from illicit acts must give himself over entirely to his Creator by living
well and refraining even from things that are permissible, so that he
might not only, by the merit of good action, more copiously obtain
heavenly help in preaching, but also, by the example of that same good
work, encourage his hearers to follow more effectively what he
teaches.

The fact that they build an altar and offer holocausts to God but are
not yet building the temple can also be interpreted mystically, as refer¬
ring to those who, recently converted to the Lord, immediately upon
acknowledging their faith in him, burn so much in loving him with their
whole heart that they are already fit to be numbered among the
perfect, even though they have not been given the time or opportu¬
nity to undertake and accomplish the good things that they desire. The
blessed Abraham offered a holocaust of this kind to the Lord even
though a temple had not yet been built when he showed himself to be
already perfect in faith even before he could perform any works of
faith, as Scripture explains: Abraham put his trust in God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness} When, therefore, he added the full¬
ness of good works to his perfect faith, offering his own son Isaac on
the altar,^ it was as if he offered more perfect holocausts to God than
even after the temple was built, doubtless because the individual acts
or stages of dutiful devotion are just like the courses of polished stones
by means of which we build a home or dwelling pleasing to God in our
heart. But how the descendants of the exiles came to build the temple
after they constructed an altar and offered holocausts to God is shown
in what follows.

[3:7] And 71275/ they gave money to the latomi and to the cementarii,
and also food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring
cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa. Latomi are hewers of
stone.^ Hence in the Book of Chronicles it is written: And David gave
orders that all the resident aliens of the land of Israel should assemble,
and from among them he appointed latomi to cut stones} Cementarii
are those who make cement from gypsum and limestone for bonding

1 Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3.

2 Cf. Gen. 22:1-13.

3 Cf. De tempi. 1 (152.212-18).

4 1 Chron. 22:2.

[273]

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

stones together. Thus for latomi and cementarii another translation has
‘stonecutters’ (caesores lapidum) and ‘builders’ (fabros)} The devout
industry of the people should be noted, for they were either buying
materials for building the temple or hiring workmen, in no way sparing
their own resources that were necessary for them and which they them¬
selves were living on. Now Joppa is a coastal city in Palestine about
forty miles away from Jerusalem,^ whereas Sidon and Tyre were most
noble cities of Phoenicia in the vicinity of Mount Lebanon.^ And so,
procuring the assistance of these people, the descendants of the exiles
asked for cedar logs from Lebanon to be cut for them and for these to
be transported by boats over the sea to Joppa, from where they might
in turn be carried over land to Jerusalem for the work of the temple.
It is obvious that this was carried out according to the same plan as
when the temple was first built. On that occasion Solomon, through
his royal power, obtained without any effort whatever he wanted for
that work from his friend King Hiram.'* On this occasion, by contrast,
the exiles, who were going back to their homeland after the passing of
many years, had to buy all the materials that their longed-for work
required, since they did not have the power of a kingdom.

But 71300/ in the spiritual sense the latomi, in building the house of
God, are those who by teaching or admonishing educate the hearts of
their neighbours,^ whom they fit, so to speak, to the stones round about
by squaring them up when they teach them to stand firmly in place
among the partakers of his grace. ‘For no matter which way you turn
[274] it, a square will be stable’.^ The mind of the elect also, as long as it

1 ‘another translation’ = alia translatio. This is the first of a series of comments which
confirm that Bede consulted more than one version of Ezra-Nehemiah; comparable
statements occur at In Ezr. 2.205, 1505, 1759 and 3.251-52,1350. The claim of Denter
1962: 99 that alia translatio here means ‘another explanation’ rather than a separate
translation altogether, is mistaken, for the Vercelli manuscript - the only complete
extant Old Latin manuscript of Esdras B - has et dederunt pecuniam caesoribus
lapidum... (fol. 109r, col. 1). Bede, however, does not use the designation vetus trans¬
latio, as he does later when he cites a known Old Latin reading: see In Ezr. 3.252. Bede’s
versions of Ezra-Nehemiah are discussed above, pp. xvii-xxi.

2 Jerome De situ locorum (PL 23:9060).

3 Pliny Naturalis historia 5.17.76-77.

4 1 Kings 5:1-10; cf. De tempi. 1 (148.61-150.127).

5 Cf. De tempi. 1 (152.212-18).

6 Augustine De civitate Dei 15.26 (CCSL 48:494.26); also Gregory Homiliae in
Ezechielem 2.9.5 (CCSL 142:359.155-62). Cf. De tempi. 1 (154.304-05; 167.794-95); In
Gen. 2 (105.1147).

BOOK ONE

remains unmoved amidst all the circumstances of the world whether
adverse or prosperous, shows that it contains within it the squared
figure, so to speak, of unconquered virtue. In this sense, Noah’s ark
too is described as having been made from squared logs,^ for the ark
fitted together from logs also was a figure of the same Church that the
temple made from stone symbolizes, and the tabernacle constructed
of planks and hangings represented this Church too.^ The cementarii
in the Lord’s house are the same holy preachers who, whenever they
join together with the bond of love those whom they educate through
good works, bind, as it were, the squared and polished stones together
with cement so that they do not depart from their place, saying: Be
prudent and watchful in prayers, above all have a constant mutual love
for each other? And the Apostle Paul, when teaching us that we ought
to have the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, modesty, patience, and
other virtues of this kind which are like the stones of the heavenly
edifice, immediately added: But above all these things have love, which
is the bond of perfection?

But the men of Sidon and Tyre who were cutting the cedar logs from
Lebanon for the construction of the temple also figuratively denote
the same holy preachers who, with the axe of God’s word, cut down
from the state of their former way of life men 71325/ once eminent and
illustrious in the glory of this world, so that when they have been laid
low for their own good and as it were have had the corrupting mois¬
ture of their inborn disposition dried out of them, they can straighten
them out from all the twistedness of the vices and raise them on high
to adorn or fortify the Holy Church.^ In this respect, it is typologically
said in a psalm entitled ‘at the finishing of the tabernacle’: The voice
of the Lord who breaks the cedars? Lor the voice of the Lord indeed
breaks the cedars that the tabernacle might be brought to completion
when through heavenly inspiration the hearts of the proud are laid
low’ so that, when these also have been set aright, the number of the
Holy Church may be completed. Hence it is well that the name

1 Cf. Gen. 6:14.

2 Cf. Ex. 26:1-15.

3 1 Pet. 4:7-8.

4 Col. 3:12-14.

5 Cf. Bede De tempi. 1 (149.84-91).

6 Ps. 29:5 (28:5).

7 Cf. Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos 28.5 (CCSL 38:170.1-2).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Sidonians is said to mean ‘hunters’ and Tyrians ‘hemmed in’d For holy
preachers are indeed hunters^ when they constrain the wayward and
erring minds of the wicked with the nets of faith^ in order to subject
them to Christ,'^ as he himself says: Come, follow me, and I will make
you become fishers of menf these preachers are also ‘hemmed in’
because in the world they have tribulation, even though they remain
confident that the Lord has overcome the world.® Consequently the
latomi and cementarii preparing stones and cement and the Sidonians
and Tyrians transporting cedar logs from Lebanon for the work of the
[275] temple, suggest holy preachers who by instructing educate the minds
of their listeners for the fellowship of the Church.

The leading men of the fathers, namely Jeshua, Zerubbabel and
their brethren, give money to these latomi and cementarii to make
them more willing to work when those teachers who have preceded
them in time and are superior in merit and erudition with Christ’s
authority either show to those who preach the word the examples of
their own virtues 71350/ or produce plentiful pages of holy writings so
that, strengthened by their exhortations or promises, they might grow
less weary in their heavenly labour.^ They give food, drink, and oil to
the Sidonians and Tyrians that they might transport the cedar logs
from Lebanon over the sea to Joppa when they commend spiritual
gifts - among which the greatest is love® - to these same teachers for

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:148.12; 149.27). The word coangustiati,
both here at line 1335 and below at 1339, is presumably a misprint for coangustatv. see
Appendix 1, and cf. In Ezr. 3.2029.

2 venatores’. cf. Jer. 16:16.

3 retibus fidei. This phrase, which Bede repeats in his Exposition of the Acts of the
Apostles, On Luke, and Homilies, is a patristic commonplace, deriving ultimately from
Augustine but found in Gregory and others as well: see Augustine De iitilitate ieiunii 11
(CCSL 46:239.334-240.353) and De civitate Dei 22.5 (CCSL 48:810.20-26); Gregory
Homiliae in evangelia 2.24.4 (CCSL 141:199.72-75); and Apponius In Canticum
Canticorum expositio 4 (CCSL 19:89.16-21).

4 Cf. Phil. 3:21; also Eph. 5:24.

5 Matt. 4:19.

6 Cf. John 16:33.

7 Bede has in mind here not ordinary preachers expounding the Bible, but patristic
authors such as Augustine and Gregory the Great generously producing copious
amounts of holy writings which are useful to their successors. He is thinking, in other
words, about the ‘excellent works of the Fathers’ (eximia patrum opera) to which he
refers below at In Ezr. 1.1470.

8 1 Cor. 13:13.

BOOK ONE

them to emulate, in order that they might be fit for preaching; or else
when our Lord, whom we have shown is symbolized by Jeshua and
Zerubbabel together,^ imparts spiritual gifts to those same ministers
of his word whereby they are illumined inwardly and made stronger
for combating the ostentation and foolish wisdom of the proud by
preaching.

How food, drink and oil symbolize the inner refreshment of our
mind does not need to be taught to anyone who has properly learnt
that saying of the psalmist who sings to the Lord: You have prepared
a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me. You have
anointed my head with oil; and your cup which overflows, how excel¬
lent it is.h Accordingly, money is given to the latomi and the cementarii
and food, drink, and oil to the cutters of logs that they might prepare
the materials to build the Lord’s house when an abundance of virtues
is divinely conferred upon preachers of the truth so that, aided by
these, they might have the means to correct the hearts of the wicked
and make them fit to obtain heavenly goods. They transport the logs
which they have cut down to the sea not in order to sink them in it but
to carry them over it to Joppa (which means ‘beauty’)^ when these
same teachers warn their hearers who have been called to the faith
about the temptations of the world which they shall meet but which
are to be overcome through faith,'* so that first /1375/ the wild waves
of vices or wicked works must be endured and only then can they reach
the very beautiful walls and harbour of the virtues. The fact that the
logs for building the temple are transported over the sea to Joppa can
also be understood in this way, namely that we must first renounce the
devil - whom the prophet calls a ‘serpent, the king of everything in the
waters’,^ which is to say, of the ungodly, whose dwelling is not in the
heavens but in the sea (that is, in the fluctuations of this restless world)

- we must renounce all his pomp and works^ and only then arrive at

the beauty of the faith, by which we confess the Holy Trinity, the one [276]

1 Cf. In Ezr. 1.909-21.

2 Ps. 23:5 (22:5).

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:124.10).

4 Cf. John 16:33.

5 Ps. 74:13 (73:13); Rev. 12:9.

6 Another reference to the abrenuntiatio Satanae, the renunciation of the devil and
his pomp expected of the catechumen during the rite of baptism, on which see above,
In Ezr. 1.1061-67 and the accompanying note.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

and the true God, the dispensation of the Lord’s incarnation, the unity
of the Holy Church, the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the
body.^ Hence it is appropriate that in this city Peter raised Tabitha, a
women devoted to God, from death,^ doubtless because in the perfec¬
tion of this faith all the Church in general is raised from the death of
sins through baptism; and also when after baptism we again incur
death by sinning, we must come to life again through this same faith
by repenting and be returned once more to the fellowship of the
faithful through the reconciliation of priests of the Church.^

[3:8] But in the second year of their arrival at the temple of God in
Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Sheaitiel, and
Jeshua son of Jozadak, together with the rest of their brethren, the
priests and the Levites, and all that had come to Jerusalem from the
captivity, made a beginning. They appointed Levites from twenty
years old and above to hasten forward the work of the Lord. It says
they came to the temple of God not because 71400/ they found the
temple already built, since, to be sure, it was said earlier that it did not
yet have foundations. Rather, ‘to the temple of God’ means to the
place of God’s temple - to the work by which they desired to rebuild
the temple. And so modern Jews'* who habitually claim that not the
temple walls but only the roof was destroyed by the Chaldeans are
mistaken, since Ezra plainly writes that the descendants of the exiles
rebuilt the temple from its foundations. However, since it was said
above^ that they came to Jerusalem in the seventh month, and here it
is added that in the second year of their arrival they began the work

1 A further allusion to the rites surrounding baptism, namely the ‘giving back’ of the
Creed (redditio symboli). Among the preparations for baptism was the so-called
‘handing over’ of the creed {traditio symboli; mentioned at In Ezr. 2.1409) wherein the
bishop formally delivered the creed by expounding it to the candidates, who then
affirmed their faith in its decrees by reciting it back to him before receiving the sacra¬
ment. ‘The theory’, Kelly explains, ‘was that the creed was a secret formula which could
not be written down but must be memorized by the faithful’. For more on this, see Kelly
1950: 30-36, from which this quote is taken (p. 32).

2 Acts 9:36^1.

3 On the theme of penance after baptism, cf. In Ezr. 2.694-707 and 3.794—801.

41 have been unable to identify the moderni ludaei Bede mentions here. Since obvi¬
ously Bede did not know any Jews himself, the reference must be either to some Jewish
author, such as Josephus, or to some patristic writer who reported on the views of
contemporary Jews. But I have been unable to turn up a specific source.

5 Cf. Ezra 3:2.

BOOK ONE

of the temple in the second month, it is clear that for seven months
they prepared the stones, cement, timber, and other necessary mate¬
rials, but when the eighth month began they started to press on at last
with their longed-for work; for there were six months in the first year
and the seventh in the following. Any learned person will very easily
find a great mystery in this. For seven pertains to the sabbath, on which
day the Lord either rested from all his works after he created the
earth,^ or when he redeemed the world through his passion and rested
in the tomb, eight to the first day after the sabbath^ on which he rose
from the dead; seven looks to the hope of our sabbath rest after death,
eight to the joy of our everlasting happiness after resurrection.
Therefore, because all the work of the elect, who are God’s temple
and house,^ both begins and is completed through the grace of the Holy
Spirit and is accomplished with a complete regard and aspiration for
future repose and immortality, rightly from the seventh month do the
temple builders, after offering holocausts to God, 71425/ begin to [277]
prepare the materials for building and, having prepared the expenses
for seven months, undertake the work itself in the eighth. No other
number is at all discovered in the preparation of such a great work
than that one which figuratively denotes either the sevenfold grace of
the Holy Spirit,'* by which we are aided as we work, or the repose of
our souls or the resurrection of our bodies, which we hope for^ when
we do good works.

But the meaning of the period of forty-six years during which the
temple was built, as even the Gospel text testifies,® will be explained

1 Cf. Gen. 2:2.

2 Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.

3 Cf. 1 Cor. 3:17.

4 Cf. Is. 11:2-3.

5 Reading speramus for superamus: see Appendix 1.

6 Cf. John 2:20. The reference to the temple in this verse (‘...forty-six years was this
temple in building...’) is usually thought by modern scholars to refer to the construc¬
tion of Herod’s temple, but Bede believed that it referred to the original construction
after the return from Babylon, as he expressly states in Book 2 (see In Ezr. 2.479-86).
This opinion is repeated in his homilies: ‘As for their stating that the temple was built
in forty-six years, they meant not its first but its second building. For Solomon, the first
[builder], finished the temple very rapidly in seven years... It was destroyed by the
Chaldeans, but after seventy years it began to be rebuilt... But the descendants of those
who were deported were unable to finish the work... before forty-six years [had passed]
on account of the resistance of the neighbouring nations. ’ -/Jom. 2.1 (189.182-91); trans.
Martin and Hurst 2:8. Cf. Horn. 2.24 (363.197-203). Bede, however, was mistaken on

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

in the appropriate placed The great devotion of that entire people
which we also should zealously imitate is revealed when not only the
elders, namely Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other priests and Levites,
but all the people as well who had come up from the captivity to
Jerusalem from the oldest to the youngest appointed the Levites who
were to hasten forward the Lord’s work. They were rejoicing that they
had returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon, and as much as
they detested the proud city’s idols and degradations from which they
had escaped, they desired equally to see the beauty of the city conse¬
crated to the Lord at which they had merited to arrive; inasmuch as
they loathed the temples of idols among which they had lived for too
long, they desired all the more that the temple of their Creator, the
destruction of which they had lamented and from which they had long
been exiled as captives, be restored as quickly as possible. For in the
same way today too, not only do bishops and priests have a duty to
build the congregation of the faithful (namely, God’s house) by
teaching, and, by taking counsel, to appoint teachers for them able dili¬
gently to fulfil the most holy work of the word, but it is also necessary
that the people themselves, 71450/ called from the captivity of the vices
to the ‘vision of true peace’,^ should request the ministry of the word
from those who know how to proclaim it. The reason that these minis¬
ters of the word (i.e. the Levites) are said to have been appointed from
twenty years old and above is doubtless that those who are to be
preferred to preach God’s word to the people are those who can not
only reveal the Decalogue of the Law through the practice of good
works as an example to their hearers, but also keep it unsullied in the
sight of their Creator through chastity and integrity of the heart. Nor
should we doubt that the state of the Church only makes favourable
progress in places where not only do the bishops, duly maintaining
their status, ordain teachers of the truth in an orthodox manner to
educate the people, but also the people themselves, by diligently
hearing and obeying their words, importune the teachers provided for
them not to cease from speaking. But alas, it pleases the sloth of our

two counts, for (1) the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC and the Jews
began rebuilding it in 538 BC, i.e. only 49 years later; and (2) the temple was completed
in the sixth year of Darius, 515 BC, so the rebuilding took only 23 years.

1 See below In Ezr. 2.465-86.

2 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:121.9-10).

BOOK ONE

times and injures both old and young - hindering the former from [278]
preaching the word, the latter from hearing it, and both groups from
putting it into practice - that we ponder less carefully than we should
on how bitter was the enslavement to the devil from which we have
been rescued or on how great a celebration we have been called to in
the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all,^ of which we have already
received a pledge in the Church of the present time.^ But let us study
the excellent works of the Fathers to make us the more ashamed of
the inadequacy of our action.^ It continues:

[3:9] Then Jeshua and his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons,
and the sons of Judah, as one man came and took charge of the
workmen in the temple of the Lord, along with the descendents of
Henadad, with their sons and their brethren, 71475/ the Levites. In this
passage he means by Jeshua not the high priest son of Jozadak but one
of the Levites concerning whom it was said earlier that they were
appointed from twenty years and above to hasten forward the work
of the Lord.'* Of these there were Kadmiel and the sons of Henadad,
who are likewise said to have taken charge of the work enjoined upon
them with their sons and brethren. In fact, in the catalogue of the
people of Israel above, they are the first of the Levites to be mentioned
by name after the priests: the Levites, the sons of Jeshua and of
Kadmiel, the sons of Hodaviah, seventy-four/ It is thus implicit in
these two passages that they were the leaders and patriarchs of the
Levites of that time. The descendants of Judah are justly put in the
midst of the Levites since together with them they have taken on the

1 Gal. 4:26.

2 This is the second passage in On Ezra and Nehemiah that strongly echoes the Letter
to Bishop Ecgberht. Along with eliminating clerical avarice, the Letter pointed to the
need to supplement the lack of preachers and teachers whose job it was to see to the
spiritual needs of the faithful. To that end, here as in the Letter, Bede urged that bishops
take the responsibility to ordain priests and educate teachers ‘who may preach the word
of God and consecrate the holy mysteries in every small village, and above all perform
the holy rites of baptism wherever the opportunity arises’ - Epist. Leg. 5 (408); trans.
McClure and Collins 345. These same concerns resurface later in the commentary: cf.
In Ezr. 2.619-26. For comment, see Thacker 1992:152-60 and DeGregorio 1999:113-18.
On the overlap between On Ezra and Nehemiah and the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht, see
Introduction pp. xxxi-xxxiii and DeGregorio 2004: 6-20.

3 Cf. Gregory Homiliae in evangelia 1.17.10 (CCSL 141:124.197-9).

4 This is evidently the Jeshua in Ezra 2:40 who is mentioned first among the few
Levites in the list of returned exiles: see Eskenazi 1992: 770.

5 Ezra 2:40.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

task of building the Lord’s temple, and they are recalled to have stood
as one man because of the same unity of their devotion. For here is
that kind of virtue which, as we have said earlier,^ we should always
imitate, namely that not only all the orders dedicated to God but also
the shared devotion of all the people should build their Holy Church,
each according to their own capacity.

Also, we should note and very frequently remind ourselves how
much good the evil of captivity brought to the people, for when they
were freed from it, they are all shown to have attended to heavenly
devotions with greater determination than they had ever before. But
today too, it has been beneficial for many who had lived negligently
in the peace of the Church to have suddenly gone astray and fallen
into some sins, provided that after their fall they were raised up by
repenting and began to serve the Lord more vigilantly; and these lazy
and idle persons who seemed to live in innocence have been warned
through ruin befalling them to prepare to arm themselves more care¬
fully 71500/ against all the attacks of the ancient enemy, so that those
who had sinned by not caring even for their own life may later on,
along with raising themselves up, devote care to their brethren’s salva¬
tion also. The whole population of those who were returning from
Babylon to Jerusalem, therefore, were responsible for restoring the
temple but the Levites and the descendants of Judah above all, on
[279] account of both the sacerdotal and the regal status of the Holy Church.
For the regal and priestly tribes above all build^ the temple because,
no doubt, all who educate the hearts of the faithful by teaching and
living well belong to the body of the eternal king and priest, namely
our Lord and Saviour.^ Hence the leaders of the work also drew their
lineage from each tribe, Jeshua from the priestly, and Zerubbabel
from the royal.

[3:10-11] And when the cementarii had laid the foundations of the
temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their vestments with trumpets,
and the Levites, the descendants of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise
God by the hands of David king of Israel. And they sang hymns
together, and praise to the Lord: ‘Because he is good, for his mercy
endures towards Israel for ever’. And all the people cried out with a
great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the

1 See above, In Ezr. 1.1433-38.

2 Reading aedificant for aedificat: see Appendix I.

3 Cf. In Ezr. 1.38-42.

BOOK ONE

temple of the Lord had been laid. The great devotion of all the various
persons is shown when, after the foundations of the Lord’s temple
were laid, not only the priests and Levites but all the people, each
according to their own grade, praised the Lord for his mercy - the
priests, dressed in holy vestments, resounding with their trumpets, as
they had formerly done when the temple was still standing, and
arousing the heart of the people to the sweetness of heavenly praise;

71525/ the Levites singing hymns to the Lord together while resonantly
clashing their cymbals; the people showing the affection of their hearts
in praising the Lord with a collective shout. The Levites praised the
Lord by the hands of David, whether on the instruments which he
himself made or by singing psalms which he himself composed or, as
the Chronicles attest,^ because David made Asaph and his brothers
the chief of those who were to confess to the Lord when the ark was
put in place, about whom it is said that his sons were under his hand,
prophesying under the king’s direction} Rightly, therefore, it should
be understood on this occasion too when the sons of Asaph were
praising and confessing the Lord, they did this ‘by the hands of David’

- that is, according to the arrangement he made.

According to the mystical sense, however, after the foundations of
the Lord’s temple are laid by the cementarii and the priests stand in
their vestments with their trumpets when, after sinners have been
turned from error and the foundations of faith and love of Christ have
been laid in their hearts, all the leaders of the churches who listen
rejoice with them, and decorating themselves also more zealously with
good works, they blow the trumpets of salutary doctrine so that, by the
example of their virtues as well as by the encouragement of their
words, they aid the good works undertaken either by those who have
recently come to the grace of Christ by repenting, or those who have
recently turned others to the grace of Christ by teaching. The Levites
too stand up to praise God with their cymbals when ministers of the [280]
second rank also serve their Creator with devout actions as an example
for recent converts, and do so in the sweetness of mutual love. Lor the
cymbals which strike each other in turn to make a noise very fittingly
denote the works of love whereby the saints stir each other to the
praise 71550/ of their Creator. They also praise him by the hand of

1 1 Chron. 16:5, 7.

2 1 Chron. 25:2.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

David king of Israel when they make an effort to consider carefully
and to imitate as far as they can those works of the Lord and Saviour
himself that he performed in the flesh.

[3:12] But many of the priests and the Levites as well as the leading
men of the fathers, and older people who had seen the first temple,
loudly wept when the foundation of this temple too was laid before
their eyes, and many of them shouted aloud for joy. Of those who had
seen the first temple, some were uttering cries of weeping, others of
joy when the foundation of this temple too was laid before their eyes
- of joy, indeed, because the temple of the Lord that had been
destroyed had now begun to be restored; of weeping because they
were distressed when they realized what a difference there was
between the poverty of the undertaking of that time and the former
most magnificent power of Solomon whereby the original temple was
founded. They rejoiced greatly because they had been freed from
captivity and had received the authority to restore the temple, but they
wept loudly because they knew that the first temple, whose size and
beauty they could in no way equal, had been destroyed on account of
their wickedness. For the prophet’s words. The glory of this new house
will be greater than thatof the first f pertain not to the greatness or deco¬
ration of the house but to the act of building itself, because the fact
that the few surviving captives were able to accomplish such a great
undertaking even as their enemies were opposing them was a greater
and more obvious miracle of divine power than that a very rich king
who had no adversaries at all but rather the very powerful and wealthy
king of Tyre 71575/ as a collaborator,^ did this with most accomplished
craftsmen, just as he desired. So too, the glory of that most recent
house will be greater than the first because the worshippers in the first
house preached to the peoples the writings of the Old Testament,
namely the Law and the Prophets, whereas in the second house Christ
and the apostles spread the good news of the grace of the New
Testament and coming of the kingdom of Heaven.

But in the rebuilding of the spiritual temple also, tears and j oy simul¬
taneously arise for the leaders. For holy teachers indeed rejoice in the
salvation of those who repent, and they lament that they have ever
perpetuated acts worthy of repentance and have not always stood firm

1 Hag. 2:9.

2 Cf. In Ezr. 1.1290-99; De tempi. 1 (148.61-127).

BOOK ONE

in their Creator’s will; those who by repenting have risen up from the [281 ]
death of the soul also exult in their own salvation, and they weep that
they have at any time lost the life of the soul by sinning. Recent
converts also rejoice that they have been gathered by the grace of their
Redeemer, and they weep that they had perished along with all
humankind in their first parent and that, after God’s temple (namely
the state of their body and immortal soul)^ had been destroyed by their
enemies, they had been, so to speak, deported to Babylon, that is, to
the ‘confusion’ of present exile.^ But since the jealousy of the wicked
thrives in proportion to the growing progress of the righteous, and
among the gains of the devout there will never be lacking the tempta¬
tions of the wicked, who either by falsely making a show of good or by
openly doing evil try to injure the holy, fittingly is it added:

[4:1-2] But the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the chil¬
dren of the captivity were building a temple to the Lord God of Israel.

And they approached Zerubbabel and the leading men of the fathers
and said to them: ‘Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you
do: behold we 71600/ have been sacrificing to him since the days of
King Esarhaddon king of Assyria,^ who brought us here’. The story is
well-known. By the enemies of Judah and Benjamin he means the
Samaritans whom the king of the Assyrians, when the ten tribes had
been captured, transported from various peoples of the Gentiles into
their cities and lands; they later accepted God’s law and observed it to
a degree and yet continued to be slaves to the same idols as before.
Therefore, because they despised the true worshippers of God, they
promised to help them with their work so that, having been received
into their fellowship, they might be able to cause them loss. Now it is
readily obvious to anyone that such peoples figuratively stand for false
brethren, that is, heretics and the bad catholics.'* They are the enemies

1 Cf. In Ezr. 2.487-96.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18).

3 Esarhaddon, king of Assyria from 681 to 669 BC, by whom, it is alleged, the ‘adver¬
saries of Judah and Benjamin’ were resettled in Palestine. But according to Myers 1965:
35 nothing certain is known of such a resettlement in the time of this king.

4 The difference between heretics and bad catholics is glossed by Augustine: ‘This
is the difference between heretics and bad catholics: heretics believe what is false,
whereas bad catholics, though believing the truth, do not live as they believe’ -
Quaestiones XVII in Evangelium secundum Matthaeum 11.1 (PL 35:1367). See also
Augustine Tractatus in evangelium loannis 34.10 (CCSL 36:316.10-16).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

of Judah, that is, of the ‘confession’ and ‘praise’ which the Church
offers in this life to the Lord through right faith and works worthy of
faith.^ They are also the enemies of Benjamin (that is, of the ‘child of
the right hand’),^ since they separate those who listen to them from
the lot of faithful people who will receive blessing and an eternal
kingdom at the right hand of the judge in the life to come.^ Therefore,
such ones say to Zerubbabel and the leading men of the fathers. Let
us build with you, for we seek your God as you do, when heretics
pretend that the authority to preach is divided equally between them¬
selves and catholics, claiming that they have and love one and the same
purity with those of true faith and work in order that they might receive
the power to teach and, in the midst of the good seed'* from which the
Apostle Paul received the name spermologos (i.e. ‘word-sower’),^ sow
the weeds of hidden doctrine. Certain men at the council of Nicaea
[282] acted in just this manner: 71625/ they subscribed to the true faith along
with the catholic Fathers but not with a catholic mind in order that the
more intimately they mixed themselves with the faithful, the easier it
would be for them to make a place for receiving the Arian treachery.®
So too, at the Council of Palestine Pelagius denounced by utterance
and writing but not in mind the heresy by which he most sharply
impugned God’s grace, lest he should himself be anathematized by
catholic priests and lose his position as a teacher in the Church and,
with it, the opportunity to sow his error.^

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:67.19).

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.24).

3 Cf. Matt. 25:34.

4 Cf. Matt. 13:24-25.

5 Cf. Acts 17:18.

6 Arius (c. 260-336), a priest in Alexandria, whose teachings gave raise to the
Christological heresy that the Son’s divinity was not equal to that of the Father’s. Arius
reasoned that since the Son was said to be derived from the Father, the Son would have
to be less perfect than He. Consequently he held that the Son was neither fully divine
nor fully human but somehow occupied a position between these. Arius’s views were
condemned in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, whose creed explicitly confronted the Arian
position by reaffirming the co-equality of Son and Father. Arius’s teachings, however,
were not completely vanquished by Nicaea, and in the fifth and sixth centuries his ideas
spread across Europe and, as Bede reports at HE 1.8 (35), ‘corrupted the whole world
and even infected this island, sundered so far from the rest of mankind, with the poison
of its error'. Bede mentions the Arians again at In Ezr. 1.1713-14.

7 Pelagius (c. 350-c. 425) was a British monk who denied the doctrine of Original

BOOK ONE

Behold, they say, we have sacrificed victims to him, since the days
of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who bronght us here. You have made
sacrifices but unclean ones because you have not renounced idols. For
what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what
fellowship can light have with darkness? And what harmony is there
between Christ and Belial?^ For you have entered the land of the chil¬
dren of Israel, not led by Jeshua, nor placed under the rule of the
people of Jerusalem, but brought by the faithless king, by the enemy
of God’s people, into his land, not in order to serve the Lord there but
rather that same hostile king. In exactly the same way, heretics and
false catholics, when they assail the peace of the Church by living or
teaching in a perverse fashion, are absolute outcasts from the kingdom
of the people of Jerusalem and belong rather to the doomed lot of the
Gentiles whose sins they do not abandon; or, to put it more plainly,
such men enter the territory of the Holy Church not through the Lord
Jesus’ leadership but through the devil’s, who is expressed figuratively
by Esarhaddon king of Assyria. For how else except by the devil’s insti¬
gation does it happen that someone receives the sacraments of the
Church not in order that he himself might be consecrated to God
through them and so be healed, but in order that he might corrupt
others who have been consecrated to God by means of his association
with them and so be more thoroughly damned? 71650/ This is just what
Simon Magus did. He received baptism in the Church not out of zeal
for his own salvation but so that he might discern the affairs of the
Church more certainly through close association. He made this clear
in the outcome, since the Church which^ he was unable to disturb in
the guise of a false brother, he threw into confusion with greatest

Sin, holding that man is free of his own will to choose to do good or evil. His teachings
were famously and rigorously challenged by Augustine of Hippo, who took Pelagius’s
teachings to mean that man does not need God’s grace to be saved. Although eventu¬
ally condemned in the West, Pelagius was acquitted of heresy in 415 at the Council of
Palestine, the event to which Bede refers here. At HE 1.17 (54-58), Bede tells of
Pelagianism’s spread throughout Britain and its subsequent defeat by the orthodox
Gaulish bishop Germanus of Auxerre (d. 437), who was summoned by the people to
combat the heresy. Cf. Bede DTK 66 (518.1630-39). For a range of opinions on the
British origins of the heresy, see Myres 1960; Liebeschuetz 1967; and Markus 1986. Bede
mentions Pelagius again in Book 2: see In Ezr. 2.586-88.

1 2 Cor. 6:14-15.

2 Reading qiiam for quae', see Appendix 1.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

bitterness in the guise of an open enemy7 There follows:

[4:3] And Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leading men of the
fathers of Israel said to them: ‘It is not for you and for us that we should
build a house to our God, but we alone wUl build to the Lord our God’.

It is not for heretics to build the house of the Lord, which is the Church,
from which they are proved to be strangers. Rather, it is only for those
who, adhering to Christ the true king and priest, deserve to be called
‘leading men of the fathers’ because of their devout care towards those
who yearn ‘to see God’, which is the meaning of the word ‘Israel’.^
[4:4] It happened therefore that the people of the land disturbed the
hands of the people of Judah, and hindered them in building. Rightly
does he call those who were trying to hinder the workers of truth and
[283] impede the work of the Church the people of the land, whereas those
who were seeking to build for their Lord God with a uncorrupted mind
(that is, to convert the minds and mouths of all those whom they could
to do his will and seek his glory) he calls the people of Judah (i.e. ‘he
who confesses and glorifies’).^ Would that we did not know how often
heretics, not just in individual cities but in entire regions as well, have
impeded the doctrine of true confession either by wrongful instruction
or even by violent threats. For - to pass over the teacher of the Gentiles
who was imprisoned for two years in Caesarea'* and restrained his
tongue from the duty 71675/ of building God’s house due to the perse¬
cution of the Jews - let us consider the blessed Athanasius, exiled for
many years from his homeland by the attacks of the heretics who

1 Simon Magus was the Samaritan sorcerer who was converted by Philip and later
rebuked by Peter for his offer to buy spiritual power from the Apostles (see Acts 8:9-24).
Bede’s mention of Simon here, however, in the midst of a discussion of heresy, reflects
early patristic commentary: the Fathers of the second and third centuries regarded
Simon as the first heretic ‘from whom all sorts of heresies derive their origin’, to quote
Irenaeus - Adversiis haereses 1.23.2; cf. Hippolytus, Philosophoumena 6.7-20, and
Eusebius Historia ecclesiastica 2.13.6, who calls Simon ‘the prime author of every
heresy’. For a review of these early patristic traditions, see Ferreiro 1996: 149-52.
Further, as Martin has noted, Bede’s brief treatment of Simon in his earlier work
Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles shows that he made use of the Pseudo-Clementine
literature (in Rufinus’s Latin version), the chief source of the legendary history of Simon
Magus - see Exp. Act. 8 (39.8-15), along with Martin’s translation, p. 79.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:75.21-22).

3 Cf. Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:67.19).

4 St Paul: see Acts 24:27.

BOOK ONE

pursued him;^ Ambrose, besieged in his own city;^ Hilary, banished^
into exile;'* Eusebius, who suffered martyrdom;^ the many bishops in
Africa who had their tongues cut out and were expelled from their
province;® and many others who were afflicted with a variety of punish¬
ments or put to death - all these left the house of God which they had
built to profanation by the peoples of the land (that is, by men who
were seeking their own ends not the things which are of Jesus Christf
until at a time foreordained by divine providence there were again

1 Bishop of Alexandria from 328 until his death in 373, Athanasius was exiled from
his see in 335 by an imperial synod chiefly for refusing to agree that the heretic Arius
should be re-admitted to the Church. He returned to Alexandria in 337 but was exiled
again in 339, 356, 363 and 366, enduring a total of nearly sixteen years in exile: see
Kannengiesser 1998. Bede’s knowledge of Athanasius’s plight against the Arians is
probably drawn from Jerome Chronicon 234.16-235.4, which Bede reproduces in The
Reckoning of Time: see DTR 66 (510.1430-32).

2 Ambrose (339-397), Bishop of Milan. His staunch opposition to Arianism brought
him into conflict with the Emperor Valentinian IFs mother Justina, who supported the
Arians. In 386, Ambrose blocked her attempt to gain a basilica in Milan for the Arians,
famously declaring that ‘The emperor is indeed within the Church, not above the
Church'; see Swift 1998. Bede knew the story from the Greek church historian Eusebius
(d. 339), whose Historia ecclesiastica had in the early fifth century been expanded and
translated into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia; the details above concerning Ambrose
indeed come from Rufinus’s expansion of the work: see Rufinus, trans. of Eusebius
Historia ecclesiastica 11.15 (GCS 9.2:1020.18-1021.15).

3 Reading relegatus for religatus: see Appendix 1.

4 Hilary (c. 315-c. 367) became Bishop of Poitiers in 353 but three years later was
banished to the East for refusing to condemn Athanasius’s attack of the Arians. The
fact that he preached, wrote and suffered in exile earned him the title ‘Athanasius of
the West’: see Clark 1998. Bede makes similar mention of Hilary in The Reckoning of
Time: see Bede DTR 66 (510.1440^2). There as well as here, his main source is Jerome
Chronicon 240.11-14; 241.17-19.

5 Eusebius of Vercelli (c. 283-371), cleric at Rome and later Bishop of Vercelli.
Widely known as a champion of orthodoxy, he upheld the decisions of Nicaea and
condemned the Arians. At the Council of Milan in 355, he refused to sign a document
condemning Athanasius and as a result was exiled first to Scythopolis and later to the
Thebaid. He returned to Vercelli in 363 and there assisted Hilary of Poitiers in
suppressing Arianism in the Western Church. According to Jerome, Eusebius died of
natural causes during the reign of Valens {De viris illustribus 96, ed. Siamake 250); but
Bede evidently knew another tradition, for his Martyrology records the saint enduring
martyrdom under the Arian Emperor Constantins: see Lienhard 1998. For Bede’s entry,
see Mart., Aug 1st (ed. Dubois and Renaud 140).

6 Gregory Dialogi 3.32.1 (SC 260:390.1-13).

7 Phil. 2:21.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

sufficient resources for the rebuilding of the same house by wise archi¬
tects after the captivity - i.e. until an opportunity was given to catholic
Fathers to restore the Church after heresies had been detected and
overcome.

[4:5] And they bribed counsellors against them, to frustrate their plan
throughout the days of Cyrus king of Persians, and until the reign of
Darius king of the Persians. The distinction of the words should be
noted because he says that they bribed counsellors for a certain price
to go against the temple builders so that their plan would be frustrated.
However, he does not say that their plan had actually been frustrated
or that they ceased from their work until the letter of accusation was
written to Artaxerxes, at whose command, as Scripture reports, they
prevented them by force. For there it is written: Then the work of the
house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it remained suspended down
to the second year of the reign of Darius king of the Persians.^
Consequently, it can be inferred that during the whole of Cyrus’s reign,
when the work was begun, they were pressing on with that work
although more slowly than was just, but when he died they were not
merely impeded by wicked plans but 71700/ were prevented from
working through open attack. For while Cyrus - who had commanded
that the work be carried out - was still alive, the enemies did not dare
to oppose his edicts through open contention even though they did so
by hidden suggestion and counsel. The allegorical meaning, however,
[284] is quite plain: that heretics assail the Church whenever the opportu¬
nity is favourable. At times they attack through the counsels of wicked
teachings, at others through the fiercer battle of swords, and some¬
times they are not even afraid to harass the Church through the
support of Gentile rulers. For they hinder the hands of the people of
Judah when they keep the Church in its weaker members from works
of devout practice; they seek to frustrate the plan to work when they
endeavour to inhibit their minds from even the very intention of good
action; they accuse them to kings when with the help of earthly rulers
too they seek protection against the Church. How much this harms the
faith became clearer than daylight during the time of the Arian
treachery.

[4:6-7] And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign,
they wrote an accnsation against the inhabitants of Judah and

1 Ezra 4:23-24.

BOOK ONE

Jerusalem. And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, and
Tabeel, and the rest that were in their council wrote to Artaxerxes king
of the Persians, and so on. Josephus believes that this Artaxerxes, who
upon receiving the letter of accusation from the Samaritans forbade
that Jerusalem and the temple be rebuilt, is Cyrus’s son Cambyses,
who after the thirty-year reign of his father himself ruled for eight
years.^ After him, the Magi ruled for one year and they were succeeded
by Darius son of Hystaspes,^ during whose second year, in which he
authorized the rebuilding of the temple, 71725/ the angel interceding
on behalf of the people said through the prophet Zechariah: Oh Lord
of hosts, how long will you withhold your mercy from Jerusalem and
from the cities of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy
years?^ Perhaps the reason that no mention is made of whether
Ahasuerus, to whom a letter of accusation is likewise said to have been
sent, wrote back or responded in any way is that he either died'^ the
very year he began to rule and left the authority to rule and look into
these matters to Artaxerxes; or, being a contemporary^ of Artaxerxes
but of lesser power, so to speak, he allowed him to deal with and decide
on them.

[4:11-12] This is the copy of the letter which they sent to him: ‘To
Artaxerxes the king, your servants, who are on this side of the river,
send greeting. Be it known to the king, that the Jews, who came up
from you to us, have come to Jerusalem, a rebellious and most wicked
city, which they are building, setting up its ramparts and repairing the

1 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.2. Unaware of the modern critical view that the
whole of Ezra 4:6-23 is likely a chronological digression (see Myers 1965: 34 and Japhet
1994: 192-93), Bede must have been puzzled by the mention of Ahasuerus and
Artaxerxes at this point. For he knew from Jerome’s chronicle that the first few rulers
of the Persian empire were Cyrus, Cambyses, some magi, Darius, Xerxes, and
Artaxerxes, and that the temple was begun under Cyrus and completed under Darius:
see In Ezr. 2.465-73 and DTK 66 (484.647^86.733). Yet the verses above clearly imply
that Artaxerxes ruled earlier than Darius. Bede solved this problem by adopting
Josephus’s view that the Artaxerxes mentioned here was not Xerxes’ successor but
another name for Cambyses. As for Ahasuerus, whereas modern authorities identify
him with Xerxes I (see Blenkinsopp 1988: 111), Bede evidently thought he was a minor
ruler, too unimportant to be included in his list of Persian kings: see below In Ezr.
1.1728-34.

2 That is, Darius I, king of the Persians from 522—485 BC.

3 Zech. 1:12.

4 The word decedens, here translated as ‘died’, could also mean ‘retired’.

5 Reading contemporaneus qiddem for contemporaneus qiddam: see Appendix 1.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

walls’. Artaxerxes, who is being urged and who, after being persuaded,
ordered that Jerusalem should not be rebuilt, is assuredly a figure
either of any of the Gentile rulers who was an enemy and persecutor
of the Church, or of the ancient enemy himself, the adversary of all
good things. The Jews who were being accused to the king represent
men of the Church; the Samaritans who were accusing them represent
[285] heretics, as is always the case. So in a phrase appropriate to themselves
they call Jerusalem a rebellious and most wicked city. For such do
heretics judge the catholic unity which they oppose. And it is indeed
‘rebellions’, and it repairs the ramparts and the walls of true faith with
the stones of heavenly testimonies against the darts of errors which
assail them, 71750/ about which Isaiah says: And salvation shall possess
your walls, and praise your gates} But it can only be called ‘most
wicked’ by those who completely reject the opinion of the best of the
elect. In this connection, we should note that, from this time, the
people of God began to be known by the name of ‘Jews’, because those
who first came up from the captivity, restored Jerusalem’s city walls
and the work of the temple, and, once the enemies who had hold over
the nearby places had been overcome, again took possession of the
province which had been emptied of inhabitants, were mostly from the
tribe of Judah.^

[4:13] And now be it known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and
its walls repaired, they will not pay tribute, tax, or yearly revenues, and
this harm wiU reach even as far as the kings. Give thanks to God that
the truth about the city of the Lord (which is the Church) is admitted
even by the city’s enemies - namely, that if it be rebuilt after the
captivity and the city walls be raised up from living stones (i.e. from
holy souls) against the pride of this world, its citizens (i.e. the nations
of elect) will no longer pay the tribute of wicked servitude to evil spirits
by sinning. Rather, the act of building devotion^ will do harm to the
princes of the power of this ait^ so long as more and more of those who

1 Is. 60:18.

2 The words ‘Hebrews’ and ‘Jews' may seem to be used interchangeably in the fore¬
going, but as Bede points out here, the people known as the Hebrews did not properly
become known as Jews until the dominant tribe of Judah was re-established in the land
of Judah (or ludaea, ‘Judea’ as the Romans called it) after the Babylonian Exile - an
event recorded in Ezra-Nehemiah.

3 ‘the act of building devotion’ = aedificatio pietatis. The noun aedificatio denotes a
process of building; it thus differs from aedificium, i.e. the thing built.

4 Eph. 2:2.

BOOK ONE

were born into the servitude of the devil’s kingdom because of the guilt
of the first transgression are freed daily from his kingdom through the
cleansing of baptism. By the grace of God working through Jesus Christ
our Lord,^ they no longer give the enemy what is not owed to him, but
from now on they pay their Creator the just tax of service which they
owe, and to the one from whom they have received them, the Giver
of gifts, they give back, both by living well and by giving thanks, the
yearly revenues of their first fruits and tithes, which come into being
/1775/ through the beginning and completion of good works.^

[4:14-15] Therefore, mindful of the salt which we have eaten in the
palace,^ and because we count it a crime to see the king wronged, we
have sent word to inform the king, so that you may search in the annals
of your fathers. You will discover written in these histories and will
know that that city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces,
and they have stirred up wars in it since ancient times. The Samaritans
eat the salt in the palace when heretics teach people the taste of [286]
worldly philosophy, the charm of the art of rhetoric, and the cunning
of the art of dialectic. These people count it a crime to see the king
wronged when they cannot endure it if any people try to wage war
against the devil’s kingdom by means of devout faith and action; they
fear for wars to be provoked in the Church lest her defenders vanquish
their heresies and fallacies together with the dogmas of the heathen,
doubtless with that One leading the way who says: I came not to bring
peace but the swordf and again: I came to set fire to the earth, and what
else do I wish but that it burnP - the sword, that is to say, of his word
to fell adversaries, and the fire of love to set fire to the hearts of his
people® and burn up all the arms and shields of the opposing sect.

1 Rom. 7:25; cf. 1 Cor. 15:57.

2 There is a reference here to Ex. 23:14-17, which treats the three great Hebrew festi¬
vals of Passover, Harvest, and Ingathering. First fruits were presented to God at the
second of these (that is, at the beginning of the harvest) and tithes at the third (that is,
at the completion of the harvest). Accordingly, Bede uses them here to represent the
‘beginning’ {inchoationem) and ‘completion’ (perfectionem) of good works.

3 ‘have eaten the salt of the palace’, i.e. have been in the pay of the court and hence
are subservient to the king. Salt was often used to seal covenants and thus implies loyalty:
see Breneman 1993: 103.

4 Matt. 10:34.

5 Luke 12:49.

6 Reading accendens for accedens: see Appendix 1.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[4:16] We let the king know that if that city is rebnilt and its walls
repaired, yon shall have no possession on this side of the river. By

‘river’ he means the Euphrates, within which Syria is situated. This
with good reason suggests the stream of holy baptism, either because
it is one of the four rivers which, rising from one spring in Paradise,
71800/ irrigate the whole world,^ doubtless as a figure of the four evan¬
gelists who, inspired by the one fount of life (i.e. the Lord Saviour),
preach with a harmonious voice the washing of salvation to all the
people; or because the Euphrates is interpreted as ‘fertile’^ a word
which very fittingly applies to that sacrament by which the world is
washed and sanctified and is wont to produce a harvest of souls thirty¬
fold, sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold for God.^ Therefore, the king of
the Persians, which means ‘those who tempt’,'* seeks a possession on
the other side of the river when the old enemy, by stirring up the incur¬
sions of temptations, tries to infiltrate the territory of the Church and
to subjugate under himself even those who have been redeemed by
the holy font. The Samaritans assist him when heretics, waging war on
the Church, fight on behalf of the devil’s kingdom and say like ones
who mourn that if that city is rebuUt and the walls repaired^ through
the true faith and devout deeds of the righteous, he can have no posses¬
sion and place on this side of the river, which is to say, in the hearts of
those who have already been reborn in God through baptism. For in
fact even those who do not understand the true faith realize that light
and darkness, wickedness and righteousness, Christ and Belial, cannot
be master of the one and the same mind.®

[4:17-21] The king sent word to Rehum Beelteem^ and Shimshai the
scribe, and to the rest of their associates who resided in Samaria, and
to the others beyond the river, saying ‘Greetings and peace. The accu¬
sation which you sent to us has been read clearly in my presence’, and
[287] the rest until it says, ‘Now, therefore, hear my decision that you are to
prohibit those men and that city is not to be built’. The literal sense is
evident, and the 71825/ allegorical too, that the impious king (namely

1 Cf. Gen. 2:14.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:160.17).

3 Cf. Matt. 13:8.

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:129.18).

5 Ezra 4:13.

6 Cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-15.

7 ‘Beelteem’ is not in fact a name but an Aramaic word meaning ‘commander’.

BOOK ONE

the ancient enemy) very willingly supports the wishes of those who
persecute the Church and prevent it from being built. The enemies of
Jerusalem dwell in Samaria (which means ‘guard’)^ not because those
who are shown to oppose ‘the vision of true peace’^ with an obstinate
mind can in any way guard the precepts of faith and truth, but because
they boast that the guardianship of the virtues belongs to themselves
when they assail the ramparts of peace through heresy.

[4:23-24] Therefore a copy of the decree of King Artaxerxes was read
in the presence of Rehnm Beelteem, Shimshai the scribe, and their
counsellors. And they went away with ail haste to the Jews in
Jerusalem and prohibited them by force. Then the work of the house
of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it remained suspended down to the
second year of the reign of Darius king of the Persians. The sequence
of the history is clear. The enemies of the people of God were at first
impeding the holy work through persecution, then were trying to
defeat their well-intentioned plan by means of their own wicked plans,
and yet they were still not strong enough to divert them entirely from
the work of God’s house until, supported by royal aid, they were able
to obstruct them with public authority. The fraudulence of those who
made the accusation should be noted, because they were complaining
that those who were working on the house of God were building a city
against the kingdom of the Persians, and when the king gave orders
that the city was not to be built, as soon as they received the authority
of the royal decree, they themselves, with harmful zeal, stood in the
way of the temple being built, despite the fact that neither had they
themselves made any accusation about the construction of the temple
but only of the city, nor had the king prohibited anything other than
71850/ the city from being constructed.

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:148.4).

2 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10).

BOOK TWO

[288] [5:1-2] Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophe¬

sied to the Jews who were in Jndah and Jernsalem in the name of the
God of Israel. Then Zernbbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshna son of
Jozadak rose np and began to bnild the temple of God in Jernsalem,
and the prophets of God were with them, assisting them. These matters
have been written down in more detail in the books of these prophets
- namely, with what words they either themselves rebuked the indo¬
lence of those who were too negligent towards the work of the temple
or by promising God’s help urged them to undertake the work, and
with what devotion by their exhortation Zernbbabel, Jeshna, and all
the people prepared themselves for the task of building the house of
the Lordd And indeed the prophet Haggai begins in this way: In the
second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word
of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying. Say to
Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and to Jesus (Jeshna) the high priest son of
Jozadak: ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts: This people says the time has
not yet come to build the Lord’s house’. And the word of the Lord came
to be in the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: ‘Is it a time for you to
be living in panelled houses, while this house lies abandoned?’^ And a
little further on: And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the
governor of Judah son of Shealtiel, and the spirit of Jesus (Jeshua) son
of Jozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and

1 At the end of Book 1, the work on the temple is said to have stopped due to strong
opposition to the rebuilding activity (see Ezra 4:1-5, 24). During this period of inac¬
tivity, the Jewish people were urged to return to their work by Haggai and Zechariah,
two prophets of the post-captivity period who preached during the second year of Darius
I. Curiously, however, neither biblical book mentions the opposition to the rebuilding;
rather Haggai cites the people’s laziness as the reason for the halt (see Hag. 1:3-11).
According to Holmgren 1987: 37, a probable explanation is that, by Darius’s second
year, the opposition had gradually ceased, and that Haggai was convinced that the
problem was not opposition from without but the unwilling hearts of the people them¬
selves.

2 Hag. 1:1-4.

BOOK TWO

they entered and began the work on the house of the Lord of Hosts their
God on the twenty-fourth day of the month in the sixth month, in the
1251 second year of King Darius} And in the following lines that we
mentioned above: ‘The glory of this latest house will be greater than the
first, ’ says the Lord of Hosts? Likewise, Zechariah begins thus: In the
eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came
to Zechariah son ofBerechiah son ofiddo, the prophet? From this title
it becomes clearer in what sense Ezra calls this prophet the ‘son of
Iddo’, namely that he was Iddo’s grandson; moreover, we should
understand that Iddo himself was a noble prophet, so that Zechariah,
who was outstanding among the prophets, could properly be called his
‘son’.'* In this context we should note how spirited these prophets were
to have ordered the temple to be built, despite the edict of so great a
king and despite the Samaritans and all the peoples around them who
were obstructing the building of the temple. ‘Zerubbabel also, and
Jesus (Jeshua), and the people who were with them are shown to have
been of no less faith to have obeyed the prophets who were urging
them more than the command of the king who was prohibiting them’.^
But since in this book we have repeatedly said concerning
Zerubbabel and Jeshua (or Jesus, for it is one and the same name)^
how by birth and deed they signify the Lord Saviour, the king and most
high priest, it seems fitting to explain how their very names signify him
too. Zerubbabel, therefore, means ‘born in Babylon’ or the ‘teacher
of Babylon’;’ Shealtiel ‘my petition is God’;® Jesus or Joshua
‘Saviour’;® and Jozadak ‘the Lord is just’.’“And indeed Jesus (Jeshua),
like Joshua son of Nun, sounds manifestly like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hence both, the one from the long sojourn in the desert, the other from
the longer 750/ enslavement of the captivity, led the people into the

1 Hag. 1:14-2:1.

2 Hag. 2:10; cf. In Ezr. 1.1568-69.

3Zech. 1:1.

4 The designation ‘son of the prophets’ was used to indicate not a blood relationship
but rather a recognition of their shared prophetic vocation: see 1 Kings 20:35 and 2 Kings
2:3, 7 and the comments of Schmitt 1992.

5 Jerome In Aggaeum Prol. (CCSL 76A:713.28).

6 The names Joshua/Jeshua/Jesus are all variants of the Hebrew y''h6sua‘ or yeSua‘,
which means ‘Yahweh is salvation’.

7 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:125.26-27).

8 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:138.6).

9 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:76.28 and 104.29).

10 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:124.23).

[289]

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Promised Land as a figure of the true Jesus who, rescuing his elect
from all evils, leads them to the promised joys of the heavenly
kingdom^ He is the son of Jozadak (i.e. ‘of the Lord who is just’), for
about him it is sung in a psalm: The Lord who is just will cut the necks
of sinners: may all who hate Zion be confounded and turned back} The
fact that Zerubbabel is called ‘born in Babylon’ is relevant to him
historically because he was born there, though he was from the stock
of David who was born in Bethlehem; allegorically, however, this
refers to the Lord who, in order to deliver the world from the ‘confu¬
sion of errors’ deigned to be born and to live in Babylon (i.e. in the
confusion of this world)^ at the appointed time. He is also called the
‘teacher of Babylon’, not because he teaches those things which are of
Babylon (i.e. of this world), but because those whom"* he finds
oppressed by the yoke of the Babylonians he educates in the grace of
liberty and leads those whom he has educated to the walls of the celes¬
tial homeland. His father is Shealtiel, i.e. ‘my petition is God’, to whom
he himself says in a psalm: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations
as your inheritance} But since when calling upon him who is the God
of each one of the faithful and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ one
seeks nothing from him other than God himself, it is possible rightly
to call him by the name ‘Shealtiel’, i.e. ‘my petition is God’, according
to that saying of the psalmist: For what remains for me in heaven? And
besides you what have I desired on earth?,^ and so on until it says. But
it is good for me to adhere to God} Our petition, therefore, is God since
from him we seek him alone, that we might deserve to enjoy an ever¬
lasting vision of him.

[5:3-5] At that very time Tattenai, who was governor beyond 775/ the
river, and Shethar-Bozenai and their connseUors came to them and

1 The ‘both’ refers to Joshua son of Nun and Jeshua the high priest. The former,
following Moses’ death, led the Israelites in conquering the Promised Land (see Josh.
1-12), while the latter, as we have seen from Bede’s exposition, helped Zerubbabel in
leading the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.

2 Ps. 129:4-5 (128:4-5). Reading revertantur for revereantur. see Appendix 1. Note,
however, that revereantur is the reading in some manuscripts of the LXX version in the
Vulgate.

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18).

4 Reading quos for quod: see Appendix 1.

5 Ps. 2:8.

6 Ps. 73:25 (72:25).

7 Ps. 73:28 (72:28^

BOOK TWO

spoke to them as follows, ‘Who counselled you to build this house and
restore these walls?’ At which we answered them with the names of
the men who were responsible for that building. But the eye of their [290]
God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were unable
to stop them. The literal meaning is clear, namely that the leaders of
the Jews, strengthened by the prophets’ words, could not be hindered
by the harrying of the enemies from the holy work, from which they
had ceased out of fear of the enemies when the prophets still remained
silent. This occurs in the same way in the Holy Church now when those
who have been held back by the attacks of wicked people or spirits
and have remained for a while rather lax with respect to good deeds
are suddenly set straight by the words either of faithful teachers or of
the divine Scriptures and begin to burn so greatly for righteous
pursuits that they cannot be overcome by any wiles of temptations or
be called back from what they intended to do. One rightly asks,
however, in what sense it is said. At which we answered them, as
though the one who wrote it was himself present at the time, in view
of the fact that Ezra, who is said to have written this book, was appar¬
ently not in Jerusalem at this time but came long afterwards when
Artaxerxes was ruling.^ So either he actually was there while the
temple was being built and went back to Babylon when it was finished
to lead back more of the children of Israel to Jerusalem; or at any rate,
even if he was not yet there when the temple was being built, he never¬
theless united himself to those who were doing the building because
he reckoned as his own all that was done to his brethren or 7100/ what¬
ever they themselves did. Similarly, through the harmony of this same
brotherhood the Apostle associates himself in a certain sense with
those saints who will come into being at the end of the world: We, he
says, who are still alive, who are left at the coming of our Lord, will not
precede those who have fallen asleep}

[5:5-6] And it was agreed that the matter should be referred to Darius,
and that they should then give satisfaction concerning that accusation.

1 The reference here is not to the Artaxerxes of Ezra 4:11-12 who opposed the
construction of the temple and whom Bede identified with Cambyses at In Ezr.
1.1719-22; rather it is to Artaxerxes I, son and successor of Xerxes I who ruled from
465-425 BC: cf. DTK 66 (486.713-20). Throughout Book 2, Bede associates this
Artaxerxes with Christian kings because of his active support of the rebuilding project:
e.g. below In Ezr. 2.976-79 and 1231-35.

2 1 Thess. 4:15.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of the region beyond
the river, and Shethar-Bozenai and his connsellors the Arphasachites,
who were on the other side of the river, sent to King Darius, and the

rest up until the end of the letter where it says: Now therefore, if it
seems good to the king, let him search in the royal archive which is in
Babylon, whether it was decreed by King Cyrus that the house of God
should be built in Jerusalem, and let the king send us his decision in
this matterd This letter that Tattenai writes to Darius is very different
from the one Rehum and Shimshai wrote to Artaxerxes. That letter
was filled with accusation of the people of Jerusalem, this one with
praise not only of the people but of Almighty God. Indeed it begins
as follows: To Darius the king, all peace: Let it be known to the king
[291 ] that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God,
which is being buUt with unfinished stone and the timbers are being
laid in the walls; and the work is being carried on with diligence and
is making rapid progress in their hands. So we questioned those elders
and spoke to them as follows, ‘Who gave you the authority to build
this house?’^ and so on. In these words we should also note in what
sense it is said that God’s house was built from ‘unfinished stone’,^
when it is evident that such a great work 7125/ could only have been
built from finished stones. Yet by ‘unfinished stone’ we should under¬
stand new stone'* which they themselves discovered unhewn but, by
shaping it up, made it suitable for the building of the Lord’s house. For
even though some of the old stones remained, which, as the lamenting
Jeremiah shows, were scattered at the end of every streetf yet no one
can doubt that new stones also had to be shaped to complete the work
of the temple. The mystery of this matter is undoubtedly plain, since

1 Ezra 5:17.

2 Ezra 5:7-9.

3 ‘from unfinished stone’ = lapide impolito. This is a difficult text in the original and
little consensus exists over its exact meaning. The Aramaic phrase ’eben g^lal means
‘stones of rolling’, and hence some have argued that what is meant are stones so huge
that rollers were needed to move them: see Yamauchi 1988: 637. The Septuagint,
however, has eklektos ‘choice’, and modern versions propose such renderings as ‘unpol¬
ished’ (Douay), ‘heavy’ (NKJV), ‘huge’ (RSV; NASB), and ‘large’ (NIV). But the Latin
impolitus means ‘unpolished’, which is to say, stone in its natural state, i.e. not finished
by human craftsmanship.

4 That is, natural stones that have not been previously used for building. Bede is
pointing out that both old stones from the first temple as well as new stones were used
for the second temple.

5 Lam. 4:1.

BOOK TWO

we have seen that God’s Church is built not only from those who by
repenting regain their senses and return to the life of holiness which
they have previously squandered by sinning, but also from those who
have recently been called to the faith, arranged by the instruction of
teachers as though with the measuring-rod of builders, and so inserted
into the edifice of the Lord’s house in a place appropriate to them¬
selves. Yet the fact that the temple was built from both old and new
stones, that is both from stones that had been finished long previously
and from those that had remained unfinished for longer, can also
rightly be interpreted as corresponding to the fact that the one Church
of Christ is assembled from both peoples, namely Jews and Gentiles
- the Jews who long since had been as though finished through knowl¬
edge and mindfulness of God’s law, the Gentiles who, being enslaved
to idolatry, had not by any industry of spiritual architects or any culti¬
vation of piety divested themselves of the ugliness of a rustic and
earthly mind.^

In the same letter there follows: and the timbers are being laid in
the walls. The timbers, which were put in place to support or decorate
the temple walls, signify the same life of the saints that adorns the Holy
Church, which the stones too signify, as we have taught above.^ The
prophet mentions these timbers 7150/ in the psalm in which the Lord’s
house is built after the captivity: Then all the timbers of the woods will
sing for joy before the Lord since he comes to judge the earth? The
hearts of those who were once proud indeed sing for joy since they
merited to be cut down from the impious mountain of ancestral tradi¬
tion'* and transferred for the construction of the Lord’s house. On the
other hand, they sing for joy before the Lord since he comes to judge
the earth - they have prevented the severity of his judgement by a fear
that brings salvation, and him whose advent it was possible for them [292]
to fear as sinners in the past, they now, having been corrected and justi¬
fied, desire to arrive as swiftly as possible.^

That letter, therefore, was written with treacherous words, this one

1 On the theme of the Church’s having been built by both Jews and Gentiles, cf. De
tempi. 1 (149.80-101); and Scheil 2004: 66-97.

2 See In Ezr. 2.122-45.

3 Ps. 96:11-12 (95:12-13).

4 de monte impio paternae traditionis: the phrase recalls 1 Pet. 1:18, ‘the useless way
of life of your ancestral tradition’ {de vana vestra conversatione paternae traditionis).

5 Cf. Gregory Homiliae in evangelia 1.1.1 (CCSL 141:11.153-55).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

with friendly ones, and rightly so because the former letter was sent
by the Samaritans, undoubtedly the enemies of the Jews, whereas this
one was sent by the governor of the region beyond the river (i.e. lower
Syria and Phoenicia) and by his companions, who harboured no
personal hatred against the Jews but merely tried to know and carry
out the will of the king from whom they received the power of lead¬
ership. Hence the Samaritans, who by writing the first letter enflamed
the feelings of the king against the temple builders, are rightly
compared to heretics, who frequently defile the Church with foul
corruption to so great an extent that they make it detestable even to
Gentiles, inciting their fury against it. Furthermore, this governor of
Syria, who does not stir up the king concerning the work of God’s
house by accusation, but questions him by consultation, properly
stands as an image of those who, still ‘located among the Gentiles’,^
marvel at the faith and works of the Church and do not deny that they
would believe if they could understand that this faith is the true and
just worship of divinity.

7175/ Finally, hearing from the elders of the Jews when they gave
the reason of their building. We are the servants of the God of heaven
and earth, and we are bnilding the temple that was constrncted many
years ago, and which a great king of IsraeP bnUt and set np. Bnt after
onr fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath and he handed them
over to Nebnchadnezzar the Chaldean king of Babylon, he also
destroyed this honse,^ and the rest that they replied concerning the
renovation of this temple that was ordered by Cyrus, he and his coun¬
sellors no longer wished to make any objection nor to impede the
builders but inquired with a simple heart whether Cyrus had ordered
that the temple be rebuilt and whether Darius himself wished the
same. Having ascertained the wish of each king to build the temple,
he himself and his counsellors also diligently endeavoured to give their
support in order that the work might be accomplished as quickly as
possible, as is written in what follows. All these events accord with the
thought and action of those who, previously established in the Gentile
way of life, suddenly see the way of life of the Holy Church and are

1 Gregory Moralia in Job 14.55.70 (CCSL 143A:742.97-743.98); and Homiliae in
Ezechielem 2.6.20 (CCSL 142:309.476-77).

2 I.e. Solomon.

3 Ezra 5:11-12.

BOOK TWO

amazed/ then are eager to hear and to learn the meaning of this reli¬
gion, and at last, when they have discerned that this religion originated
from the God of heaven and earth who alone is the true God, believing
in its sacraments rejoice themselves to take part and to support its
edifice.^ But let us see what King Darius did when he received the
letter of the governor and his counsellors.

[6:1-3] Then, it says. King Darius issued an order, and they searched
in the archive of the books which were stored in Babylon, and there [293]
was found in Ecbatana, which is a fortress in the province of Madena,
a scroll, 7200/ and this record was written in it: In the first year of Cyrus
the king. King Cyrus decreed that the house of God which is in
Jerusalem should be built in a place where they may sacrifice animals
as offerings. Josephus stated the name of the place in which this letter
of Cyrus was found as follows: And a book was found at Ecbatana in
a fortress built in the region of Media? Moreover, another translation''
has the following: In Ecbatana in a very secure building in the region
of the Medes. Hence it seems likely that the name ‘Madena’ means
nothing other than ‘Media’. Moreover, as regards what follows,

[6:3-4] And so that they lay foundations that may support a height of
sixty cubits and a breadth of sixty cubits, three rows of unfinished
stones and in the same way rows of new timber, we need not comment

1 Reading (with MS R) obstupescunt for obstupescere: see Appendix 1. If obstu-
pescere is correct, it is necessary to add another word, such as incipiunt, ‘begin’, to
complete the sense.

2 Bede may well have had in mind the conversion experience of his own people when
he wrote these words. As he explains in the early chapters of the Ecclesiastical History,
King iEthelberht of Kent warmly received the first wave of missionaries sent from
Rome, allowing them to preach to his people even though he at first refused to forsake
his pagan beliefs. As the missionaries began to preach the Gospel to whomever they
could, the people, ‘marvelling at their simple and innocent way of life and the sweet¬
ness of their heavenly doctrine, believed and were baptized’, the king included - HE
1.26 (77).

3 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.4.6. Ecbatana (modern Ramadan), the capital
city of Media, the homeland of the Medes, served as the summer residence of the Persian
kings, which explains why Cyrus’s decree permitting the rebuilding was found there: see
Bilkes 2000a.

4 ‘another translation’ = alia translatio. Here Bede’s quotation does not agree with
the Old Latin text of the Vercelli manuscript, which has iecbatanis in bari medorum
regione... (fol. 112r, col. 1). The reference may therefore be to Jerome’s hexaplaric revi¬
sion of Esdras B, possibly available to Bede in the Codex Grandior: see Introduction,
pp. xx-xxi.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

on it because neither in the building of the first temple nor of the subse¬
quent one are any of these measurements or work of this sort found.^
It can thus be inferred that Cyrus proposed this from his own ideas
and that he noted the measurement and arrangement of the work as
seemed appropriate to him. Indeed, as the Chronicles relate, in the
first measurement (that is, inside the inner walls)^ the temple was sixty
cubits long and twenty cubits wide,^ but the height, as the history of
the Kings explains, was thirty cubits to the upper-room;'* from there to
the higher chamber an additional thirty cubits which was the level
reached by the top of the porticos,^ as Josephus attests;^ and from there
another sixty to the top of the roof - which is to say, a hundred and
twenty cubits all together, as the Chronicles explain.’ Yet how does it

1 Though some modem scholars (e.g. Williamson 1987: 83) share Bede’s doubt over
these figures, the height and width may actually be correct. For according to Josephus
Antiquitates Judaicae 15.11.1, the height of the second temple was in fact 60 cubits, since
one of the reasons Herod gave for wishing to rebuild it was that it fell 60 cubits short of
what he imagined the original height of the first temple to have been (120 cubits); and
assuming that Ezekiel’s visionary temple had the same width as the real one (cf. Ezek.
41:1-9, 1 Kings 6:2-6), which seems not unlikely, then its external width, counting the
thickness of its walls and those of the side chambers, would have been 60 cubits also.

2 That is, the interior measurements of the temple.

3 2 Chron. 3:3.

4 1 Kings 6:2.

5 altitudo porticuum = ‘top of the porticos’. In the plural, the noun porticus is used
by Bede to denote the three side chambers surrounding the temple’s inner shrine, which
consisted of the nave and the Holy of Holies. It is to be distinguished from porticus in
the singular, which Bede uses later in this passage, meaning the porch attached to the
front of the inner shrine (see below, p. 87, n. 4). Cf. XXX quaest. 11 (303.5-304.10). It
is not clear why Bede interpreted the side buildings of the temple as ‘porticos’. In the
Vulgate they are referred to as tabulata, ‘floors’ or ‘storeys’ or as latera, ‘sides’. Bede
may have referred to these side buildings as porticos because the churches he was
familiar with had side chapels. As Colgrave and Mynors explain, glossing Bede’s use of
the word porticus in HE 2.3 (143, n. 3): ‘The word porticus is used frequently by Bede...
to mean a separate chapel opening out from the nave or the chancel, the doorway
leading into it being usually small; they were often used as burial chambers. The church
of St. Peter and St. Paul at Canterbury (later St. Augustine’s) had porticus on the north
and south sides, as excavations have revealed.'

6 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 8.3.2.

7 2 Chron. 3:4. Bede gives the same dimensions for Solomon’s temple in three other
works: De tempi. 1 (160.532-161.564 and 166.785-93); Horn. 2.25 (375.267-70); and
XXX Quaest. 11 (303.1-304.11). In each of these accounts, Bede tries to harmonize two
conflicting descriptions of the temple - those in 2 Chron. 3:4 and Josephus Antiquitates
Judaicae 8.3.2 on the one hand, which give the temple a total height of 120 cubits, and

BOOK TWO

say that three rows of unfinished stones /225/ and in the same way rows
of new timbers are to be laid, when all inside the temple was lined with
cedar, unless perhaps it was a custom of the Persians to make temples
with varied work^ in such a way that there were three rows of stones
throughout the walls and a fourth made skilfully from timbers, and
Cyrus thought that this should be done too in the same manner in the
Jerusalem temple; or perhaps we should understand that he spoke of
the courtyard of the priests,^ which, built in a circle around the temple,
had three rows of finished stones and a fourth of cedar wood,^ and was
as high as a man’s chest; or else of the portico of the Lord’s house that
was in the front of the temple,'* concerning which Scripture, when King
Solomon’s palace was being built, relates thus: And he made the greater [294]
courtyard round with three rows of hewn stones, and one row of planks
of cedar, and also in the inner courtyard of the Lord’s house and in the
portico of the house]

that of 1 Kings 6:2 on the other, which assigns it only 30 cubits in height. In attempting
to do so, Bede appears to have assumed, following Josephus, that the temple was divided
into two major levels, each 60 cubits high, but in order to accommodate the mention in
1 Kings 6:8 of three different storeys - which he wrongly took as referring to the main
temple building rather than to the different levels of the side chambers attached to its
outer walls - Bede further divided the temple’s lower half, which was 60 cubits high,
into two levels of equal height. The first of these portions, spanning the distance from
the ground floor to the ‘upper room' or top of the first storey, comprised the 30 cubits
given in 1 Kings 6:2, while the second storey comprised an additional 30 cubits and the
third the final 60 cubits, for a total of 120 cubits, as Chronicles and Josephus propose.
For a helpful diagram of these dimensions, see Foley and Holder 1999: 140-42.

1 ‘with varied work’ = opere variato. At De tab. 2 (44.88), while discussing the curtains
that covered the tabernacle on all its sides, Bede uses the similar phrase opereplumario
variatum, translated by Holder (p. 46) as ‘a variegated veil of embroidery work’. The
same phrase appears also in Ex. 26:1, where it is used to speak of embroidery work in
various colours and textures; here in On Ezra and Nehemiah, the phrase opere variato
is used to denote a similar pattern of variegated materials, including both stones and
wood carefully arranged.

2 The courtyard of the priests was the place where the priests and Levites ministered.
It is described more fully in De tempi. 2 (192.2-199.188). Cf. XXXquaest. 18 (311.20-34).

3 Cf. 1 Kings 6:36. Thus the plan and method for the construction of the second
temple was intended to mirror those used in building the first temple: see Williamson
1987: 82-83.

4 Here, in its singular form, the noun porticus refers, as noted above, not to the three
side chambers but to the porch (Hebrew ulam) in front of the door at the temple’s east
end. Cf. De tempi. 1 (161.565-162.614).

5 1 Kings 7:12.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[6:5] But also let the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God, which
Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to
Babylon, be returned and brought back to their place in Jerusalem,
which also have been placed in the temple of the god. When he says
that the vessels were at that time placed ‘in the temple of the god’, he
means the temple of the Babylonians in which Nebuchadnezzar had
put them and, as is stated more clearly earlier in the book,^ from which
Cyrus had ordered they be removed and brought back to Jerusalem.
The letter of King Cyrus that had been found in Ecbatana ends at this
point. To which suddenly in a novel and unusual way there is an addi¬
tion in the name and authority of King Darius:

[6:6-7] So you, Tattenai, governor of the region beyond the river, 7250/
Shethar-Bozenai and your counsellors the Apharsachites, who are
beyond the river, go far away from them, and let that temple of God
be built by the governor of the Jews and their elders: let them buUd
that house of God on its site. The sequence of events in the text is as
if Darius himself had read Cyrus’s letter and, having perused it, imme¬
diately endorsed it with his authority, in such a way that suppressing
all their adversaries, he ordered the temple of God to be rebuilt on its
site^ just as the letter said, and himself, with a most devout mind in all
things, assisted God’s worshippers to serve his will. Let Artaxerxes,
therefore, who above forbade that the house or city of God be built,^
designate those lords of worldly affairs who by inciting persecutions
opposed the construction of the Holy Church, while in the upheaval
of these persecutions that Church flourished chiefly by the triumph of
martyrs. Let Darius designate the dutiful devotion of those kings who,
recognizing the will [of God], endeavoured not only not to resist the
Christian faith but also to assist it with their decrees; and many of them,
forbidding the persecutions of their predecessors, wished that they
themselves along with the peoples under their sway might be conse¬
crated in the sacraments of the same faith."* It is very consistent with

1 Ezra 1:7.

2 in suo loco. The temple was to be rebuilt on the site of the first temple: see Ezra
5:15 and Williamson 1987: 82-83.

3 Cf. In Ezr. 1.1735-1850.

4 Throughout Book 2 especially, Bede reads those kings who aided the Jewish
rebuilding effort as symbols of kings who use their power to support the Church: e.g. In
Ezr. 2.273-83, 300-06, 342-54, 417-32, 976-85, 998-1001,1151-55, and 1231-42. While
in the present passage Bede appears to be contrasting pagan Roman emperors who
persecuted the Church with those later ones who converted to and supported

BOOK TWO

the character of these kings that to the words of King Darius it is
subsequently added:

[6:8] But I have also decreed what should be done by those presbyters
of the Jews, that the house of God may be built, namely let the
expenses be generously given to them from the king’s treasury, that is
from the revenues that are paid from the region beyond the river, so
that the work wiU not be hindered. For indeed, who can describe how
the Church 7275/ throughout the world has been either aided or even [295]
enriched by the generosity of royal gifts? On the allegorical level,
however, it can also be interpreted as meaning that the expenses are
paid out from the royal treasury for the work of the temple when even
some members of the household of secular rulers come, through the
encouragement of these rulers, to faith in Christ. They were in the
king’s treasury, so to speak, since they were in the confidence of the
king’s secrets.^ But they are paid out to the presbyters (i.e. to the elders
of the Jews) for the expenses of the work of the temple when they are
entrusted to those teachers who have preceded them in the confession
of Christ that they might be instructed and united with the members
of the Church. Cassiodorus, the former senator^ who suddenly

Christianity, his remarks might also be said to reflect his contemporary task of reori¬
enting newly converted Northumbrian rulers once governed by a pagan ethos to a
Christianized understanding of their regal mission. Indeed, as the Letter to Bishop
Ecgberht shows, Bede knew that successful church reform in his own day would require
the support of Christian kings such as Ceolwulf, to whom he dedicated the Ecclesiastical
History and who he expected would aid the reforming efforts of bishop Ecgbtrht, on
which see Epist. Ecg. 9 (412). For more on Bede and Christian kingship, see Campbell
1979 and McClure 1983.

1 There is word-play here in Bede’s use of archa, ‘treasury’ and archanoriim,
‘secrets’.

2 Cassiodorus (c. 490-c. 585) was a member of a distinguished senatorial family and
the founder of the famed Christian school at Vivarium; the Latin word senator is actu¬
ally part of his name (Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator), though Bede and many
others took it as a title: see O’Donnell 1979: 16. Of all Cassiodorus’s work, his exten¬
sive Psalm commentary, which Bede mentions here, was the best known in early
Anglo-Saxon England. Bede’s own library at Jarrow evidently owned a complete three-
volume copy of the work, which had been brought there from Rome along with other
Cassiodoran books (e.g. the Codex Grandior) by Benedict Biscop and Abbot Ceolfrith:
see Halporn 1980 and 1981; and Bailey 1983. What Bede says here about Cassiodorus’s
accomplishments as a patristic scholar is indeed comparable to what Bede himself did
in his own life’s work, which he often characterized as ‘following in the footsteps of the
Fathers’ (patrum vestigia sequens). On Bede’s debt to Cassiodorus, see Laistner 1935
and Meyvaert 1996.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

become a Doctor of the Church, is just such a person. For when he
carefully examined in his outstanding commentary on the Psalms what
Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Cyril, John, and the other Fathers^ have
said, he showed beyond a doubt that he was educated by ‘the elders
of the Jews’, i.e. by those who confessed and praised God. Similar to
this are the words that follow:

[6:9-10] And if anything else is needed, whether calves and lambs and
yonng goats as a bnrnt offering to the God of heaven, or wheat, salt,
wine and oil according to the cnstom of the priests who are in
Jernsalem, let it be given to them daily, so that there be no complaint
in anything. And let them make offerings to the God of heaven and
pray for the life of the king and his children. For who could not know
that calves, lambs and young goats, which are clean animals, and
wheat, salt, wine and oil and the things which were offered to God by
the Law, are often customarily understood in the Holy Scriptures to
indicate good people, perfect works, or spiritual gifts? /300/ All these
things are nowadays by the king’s command offered as a burnt offering
to the God of heaven when, supported by the powers of this world, the
riches of the Holy Church increase and the subject people of these
rulers are gathered from everywhere into one and the same faith of
truth to be consecrated to Christ; and whatever naturally good thing
anyone has heard through divine inspiration, whatever healthful thing
he has learned from men of the churches, all this he devotes to the
service of divine worship. Concerning these offerings it is fittingly said
that they should be given according to the custom of the priests who
are in Jerusalem, doubtless because the vows of those who offer them
become acceptable to the Lord only if they are offered according to
the custom of catholic peace. For whatever good things are thoroughly
mingled with either pagan belief or heretical speech should in no way
be deemed good. The priests make offerings on behalf of the life of
the king and his children, according to that saying of the Apostle: I
urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanks¬
givings be made for everyone - for kings and all those who are in high
station, that we may live a peaceful and quiet life?

[296] [6:11] Therefore, it has been decreed by me that if anyone changes this

commandment, a beam is to be pulled from his house and set up and

1 Reading pofra loxfratres\ see Appendix 1. Note here that an unknown author (PL
69:432), quoting this passage from Bede, in fact has quid caeteri Patres dixerunt.

2 1 Tim. 2:1-2.

BOOK TWO

he is to be nailed upon it, and his house is to be confiscated. The literal
sense is obvious, namely that he wished anyone who tried to alter a
decree of his religion to die through the harshest punishment - namely,
with the loss of everything he could possess and of his soul which,
nailed on a beam, he would lose through the torment of prolonged
torture. But the spiritual understanding is clear too because all our
works 7325/ are compared to trees, good works to fruit-bearing ones
but evil works to ones that are barren and worthy of fire;^ and a beam
is pulled from the house of him who has tried to speak against the holo¬
causts of the Lord, and it is set up and he is nailed upon it when it
becomes manifestly clear to everyone how useless and perverse are
the works of those who fight against the peace of the Holy Universal
Church; and in those works, they are shown to have sought for them¬
selves not the joy of life but rather the noose of death. And the house
also of such people is confiscated (i.e. is condemned to be public prop¬
erty) when even their bodies in which they have remained in this life
for too long are handed over at the resurrection to most vicious
torturers (i.e. unclean spirits) to be punished with eternal torment.
Darius fittingly and faithfully desired that his decree be strengthened
with the aid of divine power when directly he added in prayer, saying:
[6:12] May God, who has caused his name to dwell there, overthrow
ail kingdoms and any people who lift their hand to resist and destroy
the house of God which is in Jerusalem. I Darius have made this
decree, which I desire be carried out dutifuUy. And so, as a man
endowed with kingship in this world, Darius himself does all he can by
public law for the sake of the peace of God’s house and, insofar as he
can, crushes the protestors, and he asks God truly to accomplish this,
because his power is eternal and omnipotent; and with pious devotion
he desires both that his name might remain in his house forever and
that whoever has presumed to wage war against it should himself be
deprived of his power and life for all eternity. This occurs in the same
way today in 7350/ the Holy Church when terrestrial powers that have
been converted to the faith issue public edicts for the establishment of
that Church and, since the Lord aids the Church and puts all its
enemies under its feet, desire that it should always enjoy restful calm
and peace.

1 Cf. Matt. 7:17-19; for an extended comparison of symbolic good and bad trees, see
Bede Horn. 2.25 (369.54-371.100).

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[6:13-14] And so Tattenai, governor of the conntry beyond the river,
[297] and Shethar-Bozenai and his connseUors, diligently carried ont what
King Darius had decreed. And the elders of the Jews continued to
build and prosper. Nowadays too, as the peoples flow together to the
faith, and sometimes even those outside the faith support its peace,
the elders of the Jews (i.e. those worthy of the position of teacher)
daily build the Church by their word or example and they prosper,
because although for a time the ancient enemy attacks, the word of
God still finds some in whom it can prevail and, once it has put its
enemies to flight, raise up the walls of truth.

[6:14] And they prospered, it says, according to the preaching of the
prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. For these prophets had
predicted that if they persisted in building the temple, soon, with the
Lord’s assistance, they would not only complete the work itself but
also have a more abundant supply of all good things as a reward for
their devotion. Among their proclamations are Zechariah’s words:
The hands of Zeriibbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and
his hands will complete it, and you will know that the Lord of Hosts has
sent me to you,^ which is to say, ‘when you see that the temple has been
completed by Zerubbabel himself, by whom it was begun, then you
will understand that I was sent by the Lord and that what I have said
I have said at his command’. 13151 And Haggai says: From this twenty-
fourth day of the ninth month, from the day when the foundations of
the Lord’s temple were laid, store it in your heart. Is the seed as yet to
sprout? Or have the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive
tree not blossomed? From this day on I will bless yoii.^ What happened
in the event shows that this prediction was correct. But all the
prophets, indeed all the writers of Sacred Scripture, promise good
things for the builders of the Holy Church (i.e. teachers) if they do not
tire from adversities and cease from their holy labour. For divine help
will be present,^ by which the Lord’s house that has been begun may
be brought to completion in the heart of their listeners by their
believing and living well; and to the architects themselves will come
the blessing of crops, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the
olive (i.e. a more copious abundance of spiritual gifts), which without
any doubt will be more copiously granted to us by the Lord the more

1 Zech. 4:9.

2 Hag. 2:19-20.

3 Reading Aderit for Aderinf. see Appendix 1.

BOOK TWO

diligently we have endeavoured to establish the abode of his glory
either in ourselves or in the hearts of our neighbours.

Let no one consider Haggai’s statement that the temple foundation
was laid in Darius’s reign^ as contrary to the sacred history we are
expounding, in which it is written that the temple was founded by the
cementarii in the second year of King Cyrus as the people rejoiced and
exuberantly praised God.^ For at that time, the foundation of the
temple itself (i.e. the holy inner temple) was described, whose meas¬
urements are reported specifically in Kings and Chronicles, whereas
now we are told how, along with the construction of the house itself,
they laid the foundations of the porticos and treasure chambers that
7400/ surrounded the house itself in a circle on all its sides, of which
mention is made in the Book of Chronicles as follows: he also made
the courtyard of the priests, and a great basilica, and doors of the basilica
which he covered with bronze? In this basilica which was put around
the temple, the people were accustomed to stand at prayer and the
watchmen and the gatekeepers of the temple also used to keep watch
by day and night, as the same Book of Chronicles teaches in great
detail.'* This basilica is sometimes considered in a general way a part
of the temple itself, as when in the Gospel the Pharisees and scribes
brought the woman caught in adultery to the Lord when he was
teaching in the temple and there is no way they could have brought
any women into the temple except into some of its porticos,^ which
sometimes individually go under the names of treasure chambers,
exedra, porticos, and courtyards. Hence the psalmist’s words: You who
stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God?

1 Hag. 2:1.

2 Cf. Ezra 3:8-11.

3 2 Chron. 4:9. The ‘great basilica’ (basilicam grandem) mentioned here and in the
lines following formed the outside boundary of the courtyard of the priests. Bede
provides a clearer picture of how he envisages it in Thirty Questions, where he calls it a
‘very long rectangular building’ (longe aedis permaxima in quadrum): see XXX quaest.
18 (311.34); he mentions it again at De tempi. 2 (192.1-194.114), where a fuller discus¬
sion of it seems to have been made possible by his familiarity with two sources,
Josephus’s Antiquities and the image of the temple that Cassiodorus had placed in the
Codex Grandior, on which see Meyvaert 1996: 853-60.

4 1 Chron. 9:17-34, 26:12-19.

5 John 8:2-3. Bede notes these verses in the same connection in De tempi. 2
(193.57-59).

6Ps. 134:1 (133:1).

[298]

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[6:14-15] And they built it and finished it, at the command of the God
of Israel and at the command of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings
of the Persians. And they completed this house of God on the third
day of the month Adar, which was the sixth year of the reign of King
Darius. By Artaxerxes^ he means the one who ruled after Darius, in
whose time Ezra came up from Babylon to Jerusalem. It may be asked,
however, how it can be said that God’s house was built at the command
not only of Cyrus and Darius, but of Artaxerxes too, since it is directly
added that it was completed and dedicated when Darius was still
ruling.^ Perhaps we should understand that Artaxerxes too sent a great
weight of gold and silver to Jerusalem and ordered that, if there was
anything lacking in the building or 7425/ in the adornment of the temple
or its vessels, it might be completed from this same money that he had
sent and donated. For it is written that when Ezra was hastening there,
this king and his princes and counsellors sent a very large quantity of
gold, silver, and precious vessels to the temple.^ There, among other
things, it was stated in the king’s letter: And anything else needed for
the house of your God, whatever you may need to spend, you will
provide from the treasury and exchequer of the king.'*

The month of Adar, on the third day of which the Lord’s house was
completed, is the one which among us is called March, which Scripture
usually terms the twelfth month, according to the moon’s course. Nor
[299] is it devoid of mystery that the Lord’s house, which was begun in the
seventh month with the building of the altar, was finished in the twelfth
month. For it was begun at the beginning of the seventh month because
it is with the grace of the Holy Spirit leading us that we begin every
good thing we do and with it accompanying us that we complete it.^
But it was completed in the twelfth month in order to signify the
perfection that is contained in this number, especially on account of

1 Artaxerxes I: see above In Ezr. 2.94 and the accompanying note.

2 The rebuilding of the temple was completed in 515 BC in the sixth year of Darius's
reign, hence well before Artaxerxes I came to the throne in 465 BC. Mention of
Artaxerxes at this point, therefore, is anachronistic, and modern scholars hasten to point
out that this should probably be seen as an interpolation by the biblical author(s): see
Myers 1965: 53 and Williamson 1987: 79-80.

3 Cf. Ezra 7:14-19.

4 Ezra 7:20.

5 Recall Bede’s earlier point, noted at In Ezr. 1.1069-70, that Scripture describes the
grace of the Holy Spirit as sevenfold: see Is. 11:2-3 and Rev. 1:4

BOOK TWO

the number of the apostles, in whose faith and teaching the Church is
completed. Further, the number twelve designates the perfection of
true faith and works, for whether you multiply three by four or four
by three, you will get twelve; three rightly refers to faith on account of
the confession of the Holy Trinity, four to good deeds on account of
the same number of principal virtues - prudence, fortitude, temper¬
ance, and justice. The Book of Wisdom mentions these in praise of this
same 7450/ wisdom when it says: For she teaches temperance, and
prudence, and justice, and fortitude, than which there is nothing more
useful in a man’s life} It is appropriate, therefore, that the Lord’s house
was begun in the seventh and completed and dedicated in the twelfth
month, because the mind of the elect is illuminated by the grace of the
Holy Spirit that it might come to the achievement of good works
combined with faith in the holy and undivided Trinity, and thus full of
joy, it awaits the dedication of a blessed reward. And since this reward
of our future consecration is itself completed at the moment of
universal resurrection and when we shall see the same Trinity in which
we now believe,^ it is rightly mentioned that the house of the Lord was
completed not only in the twelfth month but on the third day of the
month as well. For since the Lord rose from the dead on the third day,
our resurrection too can properly be designated by the expression ‘on
the third day’, about which the prophet says: For he himself took us,
and cared for us. Fie revived us after two days: on the third day he raised
us up?

Now the construction of the temple was begun in the first year of
King Cyrus‘S and was completed in the sixth year of King Darius, which,
according to the evidence of the chronicles,^ constitutes a period of

1 Wis. 8:7.

2 There is an echo here of John 20:29: ‘blessed are those who have not seen, but
nonetheless have believed'.

3 Hosea 6:2-3.

4 Just above, at In Ezr. 2.393, Bede says that the temple was founded in the second
year of Cyrus’s reign (Ezra 3:8), but here he presumably counts from the first year
instead since it was then that the altar was begun (Ezra 3:2) and the materials began to
be assembled (Ezra 3:7).

5 The chronicles alluded to here are Eusebius’s Chronikoi Kanones, in the Latin
translation by Jerome, from which Bede is known to have derived his figures in The
Reckoning of Time for the reigns of the Persian monarchs: see Jerome Chronicon
(102a.l5-106.18); and Bede OTK 66 (484.647-485.695), with Wallis’s comments, p. 355.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

forty-five years.^ For Cyrus ruled for thirty years, and after him his son
Cambyses (who in this book is called Artaxerxes, as Josephus^ claims)
ruled for eight; after him, the Magi who slew him ruled for a year,^ and
after them Darius ruled for six years until the completion and dedi¬
cation of the temple - which, as we have said, totals forty-five years.
However, it may be asked how, when the Lord told the Jews about his
passion and /475/ resurrection under the figure of the temple. Destroy
this temple, and I will raise it again in three days, they responded. It
[300] took forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in
three days?,* since no more than forty-five years are found between
the first year of Cyrus’s reign and the sixth of King Darius. But if we
read Josephus’s history, which, after the completion and dedication of
the temple, allots three additional years during which the peribolus
(i.e. the construction of the walls surrounding the temple)^ and certain
other buildings that had remained were finished, we will see that a total
of forty-six years could rightly have been counted for the construction
of the temple, during which time all its more important buildings were
completed.®

But, guided by this chapter of the Gospel, we ought to bear in mind
that the temple that was built by Solomon and rebuilt by Zerubbabel

1 Bede’s calculations here are erroneous. Evidently he did not realize that the thirty-
year period given in his source for the length of Cyrus’s reign referred to his reign as
King of Persia (559-530 BC), whereas the statement that the Jews returned from
Babylon ‘In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians’ (Ezra 1:1) refers to his first year
as king of Babylon (538 BC). If the temple was begun in 538 and completed in the sixth
year of King Darius (521-486 BC), it in fact took only 23 years to build, not 45.

2 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.2.1. In contrast to modern authorities, Bede
accepts Josephus’s claim that Cambyses was also known as Artaxerxes: see above In
Ezr. 1.1719-22 and the accompanying note.

3 At DTK 66 (484.668), Bede says that the Magi brothers ruled for only seven
months; here, he has rounded up that number to make it count as one full year, appar¬
ently in keeping with the standard practice of the chroniclers: cf. In Ezr. 2.790.

4 John 2:19-20. As noted (see above In Ezr. 1.1431-33 and the accompanying note),
Bede believed that this forty-six year period referred to the building of the second
temple, not Herod’s, as most modern scholars believe.

5 Ezk. 42:7 describes the peribolus as ‘an outer wall’; commenting on this verse,
Jerome defines it as follows: 'Peribolus means the outer wall that enclosed the treasure
chambers in the outer court’. In Ezechielem 13.42 (CCSL 75:613.251-54).

6 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.4.7. Bede may have pulled this detail from
Jerome’s On Daniel. ‘Josephus adds on three more years, during which the periboloi
and certain other buildings that had remained were finished’ - In Danielem 3.9.24
(CCSL 75A:871.273-75).

BOOK TWO

and Jeshua holds a figure of manifold things. For it first designates
every elect soul, which, because of the spirit of Christ dwelling within
it, is rightly called his house or temple; secondly, the whole Church,
that is, the congregation of all the elect, both angels and human beings;
and thirdly the body of the Lord, which was born from a Virgin, lived
in the world without sin, was dissolved in death by the wicked but was
raised again to life by the Lord himself on the third day.^ It fits espe¬
cially well with the figure of Christ’s body that the temple is said to
have been built in forty-six years. For natural philosophers report that
in this number of days the human body grows in the womb from the
time of conception into the developed features 7500/ of its members.^
And it was in every way proper that the house that was to have the
figure of the Lord’s body would be built in Jerusalem in the same
number of years as the number of days that the Lord’s body itself was
to be created in the most holy womb of the Virgin. This Virgin is most
truly the virgin Jerusalem, i.e. the city of the great king^ and is to be
named the ‘vision of peace’'* - that peace, doubtless, about which it is
said: For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one,^ just as
what is also written concerning this same temple. The entrance for the
middle side {ostium lateris medii) was on the right-hand portion of the

1 In other words, the figure of the temple can be interpreted both tropologically and
allegorically, the latter encompassing both Christ’s actual body and the Church, i.e. his
spiritual body (see Eph. 1:22-23, 5:23; Col. 1:18, 24). In On Schemes and Tropes, Bede
provides justification for this kind of multi-levelled interpretation, again with reference
to the temple: ‘According to historical fact the temple of the Lord is the house which
Solomon built; allegorically it is the body of the Lord, about which He said (1 John 2:19):
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”. Or it is the Church, which was
addressed as follows: (1 Cor. 3:17): “For the temple of the Lord is holy, such as ye are”....
In like manner (Ps. 147:12-13): “Praise Jehovah, O Jerusalem. Praise thy God, O Zion.
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee”.
This passage can be properly interpreted as a reference to the nations of the earthly
Jerusalem, the Church of Christ, any elect soul, and the heavenly father-land, in accor¬
dance respectively with the historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical
interpretations’, De schem. et trap. 2.12 (168.265-169.269, 273-79), trans. Tannenhaus
121. Cf. Bede In Cant. 3 (260.610-25).

2 Augustine De diversis quaestionibus 56 (CCSL 44A:95.1-10). These remarks are
repeated almost verbatim in Bede Horn. 2.24 (364.258-69); see also Horn. 2.1
(189.192-203). Berschin 1989: 99-101 discusses this and further symbolism attributed
by Augustine and Bede to the number 46.

3 Ps. 48:2 (47:3).

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10).

5 Eph. 2:14.

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

house; and by a spiral stairway they went up to the higher storey and
from the higher to the thirdf specifically presented a figure of the
Lord’s body about which it is written, But one of the soldiers opened
his side with a spear, and immediately there flowed out blood and
water? ‘The entrance for the middle side was on the right-hand portion
of the house’ - that is to say, beginning on the ground floor from the
eastern corner of the southern side and gradually continuing by a
[301 ] hidden passageway^ through the interior of this same side to a higher
floor, because our Lord and Saviour desired to open for us the door
of salvation in the right side of his body,‘^ through the sacrament of

1 1 Kings 6:8. Bede discusses this verse at length in four other works: In Gen. 2
(109.1275-99); Horn. 2.1 (190.239-191.266); XXX quaest. 12 (305.1-306.42); De tempi.
1 (165.758-166.784). The five accounts have much in common, though On Genesis,
Thirty Questions, and On the Temple give more attention to the verse’s literal meaning,
especially the phrase in parte domus dextrae, ‘on the right-hand portion of the house’.
Here in On Ezra and Nehemiah, Bede’s focus is the words ostium lateris medii, ‘entrance
of the middle side’, which he takes (at line 515) to mean the ‘southern side’ (lateris merid-
iani), his assumption being that the entrance was towards the right-hand end of that
side, i.e. at the south-eastern corner. Then, in order to make the words ostium lateris
medii fit his allegory, he reinterprets them in a new context to mean ‘the opening in the
middle of [his] side’, namely the wound made in Christ’s right side by the soldier’s lance.
Curiously, 1 Kings 6:8 as quoted here differs from the other works. Whereas On Genesis,
Thirty Questions, Homily 2.1, and On the Temple all employ the phrase ‘the middle
story’ (medium caenaculum), which agrees with the Vulgate, On Ezra and Nehemiah
has ‘the higher story’ (superius cenaculum). Although the two phrases mean the same
thing - the comparative form superius indicates that it is ‘higher’ than the first floor yet
not the highest floor, i.e. that it represents the middle floor (medium caenaculum) - the
choice of superius in the present context is thematically apt in its stressing the theme of
desire for, and movement towards, heaven.

2 John 19:34.

3 ‘hidden passageway’ = occulto itinere. The terminology for this detail varies in the
five accounts. In Gen. 2 (109.1285), XXX quaest. (304.11), Horn. 2.1 (190.239), and De
tempi. (166.770) all use the word ascensus, ‘stairway’, a word not used in On Ezra and
Nehemiah. In Horn. 2.1 (190.241-42), however, ascensus is glossed by the phrase quasi
invisibili gressu, translated by Martin and Hurst as ‘as if by an invisible entrance’ (Martin
and Hurst, 2:10), while In Gen. 2 (109.1285) has invisibili ascensu, which both seem to
parallel the occulto itinere of On Ezra and Nehemiah. Despite these differences in termi¬
nology, what Bede seems to envisage is some kind of concealed stairway that connects
the three storeys of the temple. However, whereas Bede seems to have believed that
this stairway led to two upper floors of the temple, modern scholars hold rather that it
connected only the three storeys of the temple’s side chambers: see Foley Thirty
Questions, p. 107, n. 5.

4 Allegorically, that is, the right side of the temple denotes the right side of Christ's
body. Note, however, that John 19:34 (quoted above) says nothing about which side of

BOOK TWO

which we may be cleansed and sanctified and able to enter the lofty
court of the heavenly kingdom. For we ascend through the entrance
of the middle side to the higher storey when, consecrated through the
water of baptism and the cup of the Lord’s chalice,^ we come from this
earthly life to the celestial life of souls. From the higher we also go up
to the third storey when /525/ we crown the blessedness of our souls
by receiving immortal bodies also.^

[6:16-17] Then the children of Israel, the priests and Levites, and the
rest of the descendants of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of the
honse of God to him with joy. And they offered for the dedication of
God’s honse a hnndred calves, two hnndred rams, fonr hnndred lambs
and, as a sin offering for ail Israel, twelve male goats. The descendants
of the exiles deservedly rejoice because they merited both to throw off
the yoke of captivity and to rebuild the house of God that had been
destroyed. And as servants devoted to God,^ they offer very many
victims for the dedication of his house; as lovers of brotherhood,"* they
make offerings too for the sin of all Israel - that is, not only for those
who were able to be present, but also for those who were still living
either in Babylon or in other regions beyond the Promised Land
amidst their enemies. They asked that God would be merciful to them
also and either keep them from evils amidst their enemies or rescue

Christ had been pierced. That Bede here is merely following the authoritative belief of
the Church is made clear in On the Temple'. "And aptly (does it say) on the right hand
of the house because the holy Church believes that his right side was opened by the
soldier’ - De tempi. 1 (166.762^), trans. Connolly 29.

1 The sacrament of Baptism is represented by the water, and the Eucharist by the
blood, that came from Christ’s side when pierced by the soldier’s spear (John 19:34).

2 In this passage, Bede is viewing the architecture of the temple as a metaphor for
the various stages of spiritual development in the life of the Christian; the first level
corresponding to the corrupt state of Original Sin into which we are born and from which
we need to be sanctified; the second level to the state into which we enter when our
souls are redeemed through Baptism and the Eucharist; and the third and final level to
the state we shall enter into at the Last Judgement, when our redeemed souls shall be
rejoined to our incorruptible bodies.

3 quasi devoti Deo famuli. The word famulus, ‘servant’, had strong monastic over¬
tones for Bede, who refers to himself at the end of the Ecclesiastical History as famulus
Christi, ‘servant of Christ’: see HE 5.24 (566).

4 quasi fraternitatis amatores. As a monk living in community, Bede also had a special
interest in the love of the brotherhood, which he mentions often in his writing: e.g. In
Sam. 2 (119.2140 -42); Epist. Cath. (223.239-240.252); Horn. 2.12 (262.62-67); De tempi.
1 (189.1701-05).

100

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

them from their enemies and lead them back to their longed-for home¬
land.

But since the rebuilding of the house after the captivity, as has often
been said, designates the correction of those who through sin have
wandered from the path of truth which they had only just set out on,
it is fitting that when the temple has been restored in this way it is dedi¬
cated by the priests and Levites and the rest of the descendants of the
exiles with joy. For when those who have sinned are set straight, there
is great joy in heaven in the presence of the angels of God,^ there is joy
also for the teachers who have laboured for the salvation of those who
go astray, and there is joy for all those who have migrated in their
thoughts and deeds from Babylon (i.e. from the ‘confusion of sinners’)^
to the citadel of the virtues,^ which is truly the Promised Land. 7550/
So both the priests and the Levites and all the people rejoice in the
dedication of the Lord’s restored house because all the orders of the
Holy Church must share in the rejoicing when those who have sinned
are reconciled by repenting. They offer victims for this dedication
when they bring vows of thanks to God for the efforts of sinners to
lead a holy life, and when many, observing their life devoted to God,
are themselves spurred on to works of greater virtue, not wishing to
[302] be found more slothful in good works than those than whom, by
sinning less, they had remained more innocent. The offering of victims
at this dedication can equally be interpreted in connection with those
who have recently come to accept the faith and sacraments of Christ,
in the sense that often many of those who have preceded them in the
faith emulate the more fervent efforts of recent converts and grow in
goodness by their examples.

Now the priests, Levites, and the people were offering victims not
only for the dedication of the Lord’s house which they had restored
but for the sins of all Israel as well. They did this, no doubt, because
while we ought to look with approval on the good works of our imme-

1 Luke 15:10.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18).

3 ‘citadel of the virtues’ = virtutum arcem. This phrase appears elsewhere in Bede:
e.g./« Gen. 3 (193.1791-92) and 4 (229.1281);/n Cant. 1 (220.359)-. De tempi. 1 (152.226);
Rectract. Act. Apost. 10 (140.8); and Horn. 1.16 (112.26). It is also used by such earlier
writers as Ambrose Hexaemeron 3.12.51 (CSEL 32:93.23-24), Cassian De institutis
coenobiorum 12 (CSEL 17:207.23), and Gregory Moralia in Job 3.8.12 (CCSL
143:121.16-17) and 27.24.44 (CCSL 143B:1364.22-23).

BOOK TWO

101

diate neighbours and make their virtues our own by imitating them,
at the same time we should also pray assiduously to the Lord for the
state of the whole Church throughout the world, according to the
example of the Lord’s Prayer itself, in which one is not bidden to pray
for daily bread to be given specifically to oneself, or for one’s own sins
to be forgiven, or for oneself to be delivered from temptation or
wickedness, but rather for all who have the same Father in heavend
Likewise, the temple’s construction is followed by its dedication when
the sum of the elect, having been brought to completion at the end of
time,^ at last attains the grace of heavenly rewards. For this dedication,
7575/ very acceptable sacrifices are offered to God, those ones, doubt¬
less, about which the same house of God (i.e. the Holy Church), rebuilt
after the long captivity of mortal tribulation, throughout the glory of
immortality sings to its Creator and Redeemer, saying: You have
broken my bonds; I will offer to you the sacrifice of praise? And
because the same sacrifice of praise should be offered to God not only
on account of the gifts of virtues that have been bestowed, but also on
account of the filth of vices which has been purged and removed, it is
right that after the calves, rams, and lambs were sacrificed for the dedi¬
cation of the temple male goats too are said to have been slaughtered
for the sins of all Israel: for truly the grace of God, which confers the
benefits of virtues, also removes the wickedness of sins.'^ Nor does
Pelagius, who used to argue that he and his followers could both be
freed from evil and confirmed in good works by their own free will,
have any place in the house of God.^ Moreover, male goats are offered
in this life for sin when the elect beseech the mercy of heaven that they
might be freed from sins, and they are offered in the future life when
they likewise give thanks to him for the fact that, through his gift, they
have been freed from sins, and they will sing the mercy of the Lord
foreverf because they never forget that they were wretched but by his
gift have been made blessed.

[6:18] And they appointed the priests in their orders and the Levites

1 Cf. Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:3-4.

2 Cf. Bede In Gen. 4 (223.1055-58).

3 Ps. 116:16-17 (115:16-17).

4 Cf. Rom. 5:20.

5 Bede mentions Pelagius earlier: see In Ezr. 1.1627-31 and the accompanying
note.

6 Ps. 89:2 (88:2).

102

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

in their divisions to snpervise the services of God in Jernsalem, jnst as
is written in the Book of Moses. The order of devotion required that,
[303] after the building and dedication of the Lord’s house, priests and
Levites be straightaway ordained to serve in it: for there would be no
point in having erected a splendid building 7600/ if there were no priests
inside to serve God. This should be impressed as often as possible on
those who, though founding monasteries with brilliant workmanship,
in no way appoint teachers in them to exhort the people to God’s
works but rather those who will serve their own pleasures and desires
there.^ Yet the fact that it says that the priests were organized in their
orders and the Levites in their divisions signifies the rotas of the weeks.
In these, every assembly of each of the two grades was divided into
twenty-four parts in such a way that each group would take turns to
serve in the temple for eight days, namely from sabbath to sabbath,
and then, freed from the duties of the temple, might take care of their
own families for twenty-three weeks, as the Chronicles relate.^ For all
the way round the inner shrine they had already built the porticos of
the temple,^ in whose doors the Levites watched in turn, as we also
read there.'* But the phrase, as is written in the Book of Moses, pertains
not to the divisions of the Levites but to the service of God. For it was

1 Another passage strongly reminiscent of the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht. In the
Letter. Bede expresses concern for the widespread secularization of monastic houses at
the hands of laymen, arguing, in words that reflect this passage, that ‘they do not gather
monks there but rather they find those vagrants who have been expelled from monas¬
teries in other places for the sin of disobedience, or whom they have lured away from
other monasteries, or, for sure, those of their own followers whom they can persuade
to take the tonsure and promise monastic obedience to them. They fill the monastic cells
they have built with these cohorts of the deformed, and as a hideous and unheard of
spectacle, those same men occupy themselves with their wives and the children they
have engendered, and rising from their beds, carefully deal with whatever needs to be
done within the monastic enclosure’ - Epist. Ecg. 12 (415-16); trans. McClure and
Collins 351. Besides the obvious thematic parallel, there is some noteworthy linguistic
overlap here too: compare the Letter's ‘serve only their own desires there’ {suis tantum
inibi desideriis... deserviunt: p. 415) with On Ezra and Nehemiah’s ‘serve only their own
pleasures and desires there’ {suis potius inibi voluptatibus ac desideriis serviunf. lines
603^). For more on the parallels between the Letter and On Ezra and Nehemiah, see
Introduction pp. xxxi-xxxiii and DeGregorio 2004; 6-20.

2 1 Chron. 23-24; cf. Luke 1:8.

3 porticos templi: see above In Ezr. 2.221-22 and the accompanying note.

4 Cf. 1 Chron. 23:5, which says that some of the Levites were gatekeepers. This is
explained more fully in 1 Chron. 26.

BOOK TWO

103

Moses who wrote about what the priests and what the Levites ought
to carry out in God’s house,^ whereas the divisions of the Levites and
the orders of the priests in their twenty-four parts about which we have
spoken were prescribed not by Moses but by King David along with
the prophets, priests, and Levites of his time.^ Today too, when a
church of Christ is built and dedicated through the regeneration of
peoples who are new to the faith, it is proper that priests and Levites
be established in their proper orders and turns to supervise God’s
service, so that not only may the peoples be admitted to the sacraments
of the faith but also instructed to do the things that are of God by the
examples and learning of those righteous ones who came to Christ
before them^ 7625/, moreover not according to human notions but as
is written in the Book of Moses. That saying of the Lord concurs with
this: Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to
obey everything I have commanded you} We must not, therefore,
teach our hearers our own commandments but those of the Law and
the Gospels, if we desire to arrive together with these same hearers at
the rewards that the Lord has promised.^

1 The procedures and regulations of the priesthood are dealt with in Leviticus, partic¬
ularly chapters 18-23.

2 Cf. 1 Chron. 23-27. In addition to overseeing the material preparations for the
construction of the temple, David, with the help of the prophets (on which see 2 Chron.
29:25), saw to the arrangements of the temple’s ministers, the Levites, and established
a system of procedures for them to follow in their daily worship.

3 On Bede’s concern for more teachers of the faith, cf. In Ezr. 1.1446-70, and the
accompanying note. Early in the Ecclesiastical History, Bede approvingly cites Pope
Gregory’s plan to foster the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England through the
appointment of twelve bishops in the south and an equal number in the north - see HE
1.29 (104—06). Yet the plan for the twelve northern bishops with a Metropolitan at York
never materialized, much to Bede’s dissatisfaction. That dissatisfaction and Bede’s
desire for a changed situation must surely have inspired passages like this one from the
commentary that proclaim the need to ordain an ample supply of bishops and priests.
Shortly before his death Bede was still anxious about the problem, mentioning in the
Letter to Ecgberht Pope Gregory’s original plan and then proclaiming: T should like
you, holy father, under the protection and guidance of the previously mentioned most
pious and God-beloved king [Ceolwulf], most assiduously to see to bring about the
achieving of that number of bishops’ - Epist. Ecg. 9 (413); trans. McClure and Collins
349.

4 Matt. 28:19-20.

5 Cf. Bede De tempi. 1 (155.340-43).

104

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[6:19-20] Now the descendants of the exiles celebrated the Passover
on the fonrteenth day of the first month. For all the priests and Levites
were pnrified as one man: all were clean to immolate the Passover
lamb for all the descendants of the exiles, for their brethren the priests
and for themselves. What relevance did it have for the story to describe
the celebration of the Passover after the Lord’s house had been built,
when it had already been promised long before that, from the first day
[304] of their arrival in Jerusalem, they would offer the legally prescribed
sacrifices and holocausts on all the holy days of the Lord?^ Perhaps
he chose to make particular mention of the Passover celebration in
order to make the reader aware that the descendants of the exiles
completed the building of the temple with the same devotion of mind
with which they had begun. For there it was already said that the
people gathered together as one man in Jernsalem, and Jeshna son of
Jozadak rose np, and his brethren the priests, and Zernbbabel son of
Shealtiel and his brethren, and they bnilt the altar of God, that they
might offer holocansts npon it;^ and now that the temple was dedi¬
cated and the forty-sixth year was already approaching, it is recorded
that the same religious devotion /650/ was present in the minds of all
when it is said that the priests and Levites were pnrified as one man:
aU were clean to immolate the Paschal lamb. For what perfection can
be greater in this life than the unity of a pure multitude? There were
many thousands of priests, many thousands of Levites who all, never¬
theless, had been purified and cleansed to sacrifice the Paschal lamb,
and they did this not with diverse purposes of their souls but, as Luke
wrote about the primitive Church of the New Testament, with one
heart and one soul? This is the unity of true faith and love for God,
and a similar unity of love and purity is found among the people. When
it is said, to immolate the Passover lamb for all the descendants of the
exiles, for their brethren the priests and for themselves, it immediately
adds,

[6:21] And the children of Israel who had retnrned from exile ate it,
together with each one who had separated himself from the contami¬
nation emanating from the peoples of the land in order to seek the
Lord, the God of Israel. Hence the paschal lamb was immolated for

1 Cf. Ezra 6:18.

2 Ezra 3:1-2.

3 Acts 4:32. On the monastic resonances this verse carried for Bede, see above In
Ezr. 1.624-35 and the accompanying notes.

BOOK TWO

105

all the descendants of the exiles. And all the children of Israel ate the
meal - not only those who had returned from captivity but also all who,
though previously living elsewhere, had at that time separated them¬
selves from the contaminations of their Gentile neighbours. This can
also be rightly understood in connection with proselytes, who, though
they were Gentiles by nature, were converted to the religious custom
of God’s people after accepting circumcision and having been cleansed
through the legally prescribed offerings, in order that they also would
be worthy to participate in the saving sacrifice. And one should note
that he calls those who were enslaved to unclean practices ‘peoples of
the land’, in order that he might teach, by way of contrast, that the
‘peoples of heaven’ are those who, having been separated from the
others, served the Lord in unity 16151 and chastity and celebrated his
feast with a sincere heart. Nowhere else, unless I am mistaken, is the
people of Israel found to have been of such devotion with their priests
and Levites (i.e. their teachers) since the time when through Moses
they went out from Egypt; but this devotion was brought about by
divine punishment, since they had been handed over to their enemies
to be punished for their sins, and having been afflicted by adversities
and turned from their sins by repenting, thanks to their repentance [305]
and religious life, they were freed from their enemies and led back to
their own homeland to serve God better.

But even up until now we see very often that those who have dese¬
crated the temple of their own body by sinning habitually, and through
this have been held captive by the devil, have returned to the Lord
through repentance and rightly with greater insistence than they were
accustomed to before have toiled with good works to prepare a home
in themselves again for their Creator.^ For it should be noted that
Solomon, during his very peaceful reign, completed the first temple in
a short span of time since nobody opposed him in any way.^ Now,
however, after that temple was destroyed because of their sins, the
descendants of the exiles, persevering with prolonged labour in great
compunction of heart and very often hindered by their enemies, with
God’s help at last rebuilt it. For it is easy for anyone who has been
converted to the faith and recognition of the truth to renounce the
devil and confess the true living God and receive Christ’s sacraments

1 Cf. In Ezr. 1.785-94.

2 See 1 Kings 5:1-6:26; cf. Bede De tempi. 1 (148.61-68).

106

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

and, once initiated in these for the remission of all his sins, to be made
his temple^ and by the present help of his grace preserve the innocence
of life which they have received. But it takes great effort for someone
7700/ who by sinning shows his contempt for the sacraments of the faith
he has received to win back his former worthiness, because to him easy
purification through the water of baptism cannot be given again, but
the foul crime must be washed away through the long labour of
penance, copious streams of tears, and the unremitting toil of conti¬
nence. The very habit of vices fights like a hostile crowd of Samaritans
against the purification of such a person and is harder to conquer the
longer it has occupied a land of the heart empty of virtue.

This too can be said, that the reason that special mention is made
of the Passover sacrifice after the house of the Lord had been rebuilt
and dedicated - since no one can doubt but that men of such devotion
would wish to make the Passover sacrifice at the appropriate moment
- was so that it might mystically be implied that the height of all perfec¬
tion is when, rising above all the desires and enticements of the world,
we constantly meditate with the full concentration of our mind on the
entry to the next life. For the word ‘Pascha’ (Passover) means ‘passing
over’.^ It has this name either because the children of Israel passed
over on this day from slavery in Egypt to the joys of freedom through
the immolation of a lamb, or because the spotless Lamb himself, i.e.
Christ the Lord, was immolated for our redemption and passed over
from this world to the Father. We too imitate this when we pass over
from the pleasures here below to seeking the things of heaven. But we
truly accomplish this when, freed from the prison of the flesh, we enter
the heavenly kingdom. What follows aptly supports this interpreta¬
tion:

[6:22] For seven days they joyfully celebrated the Feast of Unleavened
[306] Bread. For the Apostle teaches how 7725/ we ought to keep this feast
in a spiritual way when he says: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with
the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth? This feast should be cele-

1 Cf. 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 6:16.

2 Bede discusses the etymology of the word ‘Passover’ further in three of his homi¬
lies: see Horn. 2.1 (186.78-83), 2.2 (195.80-93); and 2.5 (214.7-16). He is relying on
Augustine, principally Tractatiis in evangelium loannis 55.1 (CCSL 36:463.9^64.21)
and Enarrationes in Psalmos 68.2 (CCSL 39:902.16-903.38, and passim).

3 1 Cor. 5:8.

BOOK TWO

107

brated for seven days because through all the time of this world, which
runs its course in as many days,^ our life should be led in sincerity and
truth, indeed in the sacrifices and holocausts of all good works. But
since it was at the time of Passover that our Lord, through the eternal
power of his resurrection, conquered the death that he had momen¬
tarily tasted, the celebration of Passover in this passage can also be
related typologically to the time of our own resurrection. Thus the
building of the temple stands for the present state of the Holy Church;
its dedication for our future life which is spent amidst the joy of holy
souls when they have left the body; and the sacrifice of the paschal
lamb suggests the glory of the resurrection, when all the elect, through
the flesh of the immaculate Lamb (i.e. our God and Lord), are made
anew no longer in the sacrament by believing, but in reality and truth,
by seeing.^ For this reason also, at this Passover all the priests and
Levites, the whole assembly of the people, all who flowed together to
join them from the nations, are said to have been clean, all are said to
have been there as if they were one, because truly at that time the
Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world f and as the Apostle John
says: The blood of Jesus the son of God purifies us from every sinJ Then
there will be true unity when God will be all in allf then the true feast
of unleavened bread will be celebrated with joy, when with no leaven
of malice and wickedness^ remaining among the elect, all will adhere
to the vision of God in truth and sincerity of heart; and moreover not
for the seven /750/ days of this transitory age but for the one day of
eternal life in the Lord’s courts, which is better than thousands in the
light of the Holy Spirit,’ whose seven-fold grace the prophet
commends to us.®

[6:22] They celebrated, it says, the Feast of Unleavened Bread for
seven days with joy, for the Lord had liUed them with joy and had
turned the heart of the Assyrian king to them, that he should help then-
hands in the work of the house of the God of Israel. For this, surely.

1 See In Ezr. 1.1073-74 and the accompanying note for discussion of this theme.

2 Cf. John 20:29.

3 John 1:29.

4 1 John. 1:7.

5 1 Cor. 15:28.

6 1 Cor. 5:8.

7 Ps. 84:10 (83:11).

81s. 11:2-3.

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BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

is the greatest joy of the just in this world and in the next, that the work
of the Church be completed when even the Gentiles who were
formerly obstructive have been converted to aid her condition and
strengthen the peace of the Christian religion throughout the whole
world. So far we have described the return from Babylon to Jerusalem
of the people who had been held captive; the bringing back of the
vessels which had been carried away; the restoration and dedication
of the temple which had been destroyed by fire; the celebration of the
feast; and the singing of the Lord’s songs^ which, in the foreign land,
[307] they were not allowed to do - all under the leaders Zerubbabel and
Jeshua. All these events contain one and the same knowledge of the
salvation of the human race in Christ, when either those who have
come into the world with the sin of the first transgression are saved
once they are purified by the sacraments of the faith, or those who by
sinning had corrupted the faith they received come to their senses
again by repenting; and both, through one and the same Saviour, the
true king and priest, as though celebrating the most joyous Passover,
pass over from this world to the Father, from death to life. But because
when the temple had been burned down and the city of Jerusalem had
been demolished, the holy writings kept there were likewise burnt
through enemy devastation,^ 7775/ it was proper that, when the Lord
showed mercy and returned to his people, these writings should also
be restored, so that having repaired the buildings that had been
destroyed they would also have writings from which they would
receive encouragement and learn how they might be inwardly restored
in faith and love of their Creator.^ Hence the text appropriately
continues:

1 Cf. Ps. 137:4 (136:4).

2 ‘were destroyed by enemy devastation’ = fuerant hostili clade perustae. This
wording echoes part of the couplet inserted over the Ezra miniature in the Codex
Amiatinus, compiled at Bede’s own Wearmouth-Jarrow some time before 716. The full
couplet reads: Codicibus sacris hostili clade periistis / Esdra Deo fervens hoc reparavit
opus (‘After the sacred books were destroyed by enemy devastation, / Ezra, in his zeal
for God, restored this work’). For more on the Ezra miniature, see Appendix 2.

3 Ezra’s restoration of Scripture, in other words, is meant to bring about the spiri¬
tual and moral reform of his people. While not a part of the canonical story, Ezra’s
textual endeavours were evidently of great interest to Bede, who saw in the figure of
Ezra an intersection of roles - scholar, reformer, teacher - on which to model his own
mission to restore Northumbrian society to a state of spiritual health: see Introduction
pp. xxxiii-xxxvi and DeGregorio 2004:18-20.

BOOK TWO

109

[7:1-6] Now after these words^ in the reign of Artaxerxes king of the
Persians, Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, and so on until his
genealogy is completed and it says, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the
priest from the beginning - this Ezra came np from Babylon. He was
a scribe swift in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God had given to
Israel. This Artaxerxes, under whom Ezra came up from Babylon to
Jerusalem, Josephus believes to be Xerxes son of Darius, who reigned
after him.^ Moreover, the books of the chronicles^ hold that the
successor of this same Xerxes, who also among them was called
Artaxerxes, is designated here.'* Now Darius, under whom the temple
was built, ruled thirty-six years; after him Xerxes ruled for twenty
years; after him Artabanus ruled for seven months (which the chron¬
iclers set down as a year); and after him Artaxerxes ruled for forty
years.^

Now Ezra, who is called a swift scribe in the Law of Moses for having
restored the Law that had been destroyed, rewrote not only the Law
but also, as the common tradition of our forebears holds, the whole
sequence of sacred Scripture that had likewise been destroyed by fire,
in accordance with the way that seemed to him to meet the needs of
readers.® In this undertaking they say that he added certain words that

1 ‘After these words’ refers to the completion and dedication of the temple in 515
BC. Assuming, as Bede and most modern scholars do, that it is Artaxerxes I (465-425
BC) who is mentioned here, there is a gap of almost sixty years between the comple¬
tion of the temple in 515 BC and the coming of Ezra and the group of exiles who returned
with him in 458 BC. Some modern scholars, however, believe that only Nehemiah came
up during the time of Artaxerxes I, but Ezra during the time of Artaxerxes II (405-359
BC): see Yamauchi 1988: 648; Williamson 1987: 55-59; and Japhet 1994: 203-08.

2 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.5.1.

3 Jerome Chronicon (110.18-21).

4 In other words, the person meant here is not Xerxes I (485-465 BC) but Artaxerxes
I. In Jewish Midrash, Xerxes was mistakenly identified with Artaxerxes: see Yamauchi
1980:103. Note Bede’s readiness to reject Josephus’s views when they contradicted his
Christian sources.

5 Jerome Chronicon (104a.25-26; 108.23; 110.15-16; 110.18-21); cf. Bede DTK 66
(484.672-486.720).

6 Cf. Bede In Gen. 3 (181.1385-89), In Sam. 2 (80.522-28), and YZY quaest. 7
(301.17-21), which similarly speak of Ezra’s restoration of the Hebrew canon. Although
the latter is mentioned by Jerome (Prologiis in Regum 364) and Isidore (Etymologiae
6.3.2), the story itself derives ultimately from apocryphal sources, mainly 4 Esdras
14:9—48: see Myers 1974: 317-29. These verses tell of a vision in which Ezra is divinely
inspired to restore the Law that was destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem
in 587 BC. In the story, Ezra sets aside forty days to record what God reveals to him

110

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

he considered useful, such as the saying, And no prophet that the Lord
knew face to face like Moses has risen in Israel,^ and so on, which could
be said only by one who /800/ lived a long time after Moses; and in the
Book of Samuel, Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God,
he would say, ‘Come, let us go to the one who sees, ’ because he who is
today called a prophet used to be called one who sees? But they say he
left untouched some complete books that the people of Israel previ-
[308] ously possessed, and that for this reason of these little else apart from
the mention of their name is preserved today in Sacred Scripture, such
as that saying in the Book of Numbers: Whence it is said in the Book
of the Wars of the Lord'] and in Joshua: Is it not written in the Book of
the Righteous?'^ Moreover, in both Kings and Chronicles are
mentioned the historical books of the prophets Ahijah the Shilonite,
Shemaiah, of Iddo and Nathan, of Isaiah also and of Jehu son of
Hanani (about whom it is said that he wrote the book of the kings of
Israel), and many others in addition to all these of which they say that
no traces are found anywhere today.^ The Hebrews also say - and
among them there is no doubt on this matter - that this same Ezra
devised simpler letters with the same names as they had had before,
by which he might very rapidly restore the great quantity of books that

and then dictates this revelation to five scribes who record the revelation in ninety-four
books (4 Esd. 14:44). Ezra is then told to proclaim to the people the first twenty-four
books copied but to keep the remaining seventy secret. Judging from Bede’s allusion to
‘the common tradition of our forebears’ {communis maiorum fama), this story appears
to have been known in some form in early Anglo-Saxon England; in this connection,
Meyvaert 1996:874, notes that Gildas quotes from 4 Esdras in his De excidio Britanniae.
On the connection with reform, see above In Ezr. 2.772-78, and Introduction pp.
xxxiii-xxxiv; also DeGregorio 2004.

1 Deut. 34:10.

2 1 Sam. 9:9.

3 Num. 21:14.

4 Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18. Modern translations usually refer to this lost book as the
‘Book of Jasher’, the Hebrew term yaSar meaning ‘one who is honest or upright’. It is
believed to have been a collection of ancient Hebrew poetry about ‘heroic individuals
who are the subjects of its contents or perhaps to all Israel as the upright people’: see
Christensen 1992: 646. Bede mentions this lost work also in Thirty Questions: see XXX
quaest. 1 (301.6-9).

5 2 Chron. 9:29; 12:15; 32:32; 1 Kings 16:1-7. Bede mentions some of these titles in
Thirty Questions: see XXX quaest. 1 (301.12-17). The works listed here appear to be
tracts of a prophetic nature that did not make their way into the Hebrew canon: see
Talmon 1987: 368.

BOOK TWO

111

had been destroyed^ For this reason he is called not just a scribe but
a ‘swift’ scribe. The former letters, however, remained in use among
the Samaritans, by which they were accustomed to write down the five
books of Moses, which alone they accepted from Holy Scripture.
[7:7-9] And some of the children of Israel and children of the priests
and children of Levites and some of the singers and the gatekeepers
and the Nathinnites went np to Jernsalem in the seventh year of King
Artaxerxes. And they arrived in /825/ Jernsalem in the fifth month, in
the seventh year of the king. For he began his jonrney from Babylon
on the first day of the first month, and arrived in Jernsalem on the first
day of the fifth month. Since he began to go up from Babylon on the
first day of the first month and came to Jerusalem on the first day of
the fifth month, it describes their arrival in Jerusalem in anticipation.
For in what follows he describes in greater detail from the beginning
both how they came up and where they gathered their company.^ Now
it is worth noting that at the beginning of this book it was written that,
in accordance with Cyrus’s promise, some of the descendants of Judah
and Benjamin together with their priests and Levites came up from
Babylon with their leaders Zerubbabel and Jeshua, all of whom God
had aroused in spirit,^ and concerning whom also it was added that
they were from the captives that Nebuchadnezzar king of B abylon had
carried away to Babylon.'* Here, however, under Ezra’s leadership, no
mention is made of Judah and Benjamin, no mention is made of
Nebuchadnezzar’s deportation, but only of the children of Israel and
the priests and the Levites who went up with him. So it seems prob¬
able that those who were sent back to Jerusalem on the previous

1 Cf. Bede XXX quaest. 1 (302.22-26), which quotes Ezra 7:6. The apocryphal story
in Esdras 4 makes no explicit mention of Ezra’s devising a different script whereby to
record his revelation; rather it says that the five scribes to whom Ezra dictated the vision
recorded it in letters they did not understand (4 Esd. 14:42). Bede probably derived the
story of Ezra's designing a new script from Jerome who, in the prologue to his Vulgate
translation of Samuel and Kings, says that ‘It is certain that Ezra the scribe and teacher
of the law... invented the other letters that we now use’ - Prologus in Regum 364. The
writing described is the script used in biblical Hebrew (i.e. Aramaic ‘square script’),
whereas the Samaritan writing it replaced is the earlier palaeo-Hebrew (i.e. Phoenician
script) extant in some inscriptions and some of the Qumran fragments: see Kenyon 1939:
40-41, 48-49.

2 Cf. Ezra 8:15-32.

3 Cf. Ezra 1:5-6.

4 See Ezra 2:1-58.

112

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

occasion were the ones from Judah and Benjamin who had been taken
to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, whereas those who we read were led
back by Ezra on this occasion were from the ten tribes which were
[309] specifically called ‘Israel’ after the division, those whom the kings of
the Assyrians had captured long before Nebuchadnezzar’s time and
caused to dwell beyond the mountains of the MedesJ Accordingly, at
that time it was for the most part the two tribes who returned home
and rebuilt the temple with arduous labour; the ten 7850/ tribes,
however, which were less devoted to the temple and religion,
neglected to return to their homeland even though the king
commanded it, because once the empire of the Chaldeans had been
destroyed, they lived freely under the kings of the Persians who used
to esteem their people; but when they learnt that the temple had been
rebuilt and the hatred of the Samaritans had been suppressed, at last
some from among these same tribes agreed to go home, though many
remained there, and their descendants are said to remain in these same
parts and to serve the Persian people until this very day.

But just as Zerubbabel and Jeshua, as has often been said, desig¬
nate the Lord Saviour, who releases the human race from captivity
through his grace and himself builds his own house in us by sanctifying
and taking possession of us, so in the same way Ezra the priest and
swift scribe plainly stands for the same Lord who came not to destroy
the Law but to fulfil it? For he could rightly be called a scribe of God’s
Law^ or a scribe swift in the Law of Moses‘S because he himself gave
the Law to Moses through an angel, he himself taught the holy
prophets every truth^ through the grace of his own spirit, and he himself
enflamed the minds of all the elect as soon as he touched them with
his love to understand and carry out the will of God the Father. And
so, promising the grace of the New Testament, the prophet declared:
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those

1 It is important to recall here that there were three separate returns from captivity:
the first in 539 BC led by Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, and Jeshua; the second in 458 BC
led by Ezra; and the third in 444 BC led by Nehemiah. Bede is pointing out, as noted at
In Ezr. 1.542-52, that the members of the first return belonged to the tribes of Judah
and Benjamin, whereas those who returned later with Ezra were descendants of the ten
tribes taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 BC (see 2 Kings 17:3-6).

2 Cf. Matt. 5:17; cf. Gal. 3:19-24.

3 Ezra 7:12.

4 Ezra 7:6.

5 John 16:13.

BOOK TWO

113

days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind, and I will write
them in their heart.^ The psalmist beautifully makes mention of this
scribe when he says: My tongue is the pen of a scribe who writes swiftly.^

For the tongue of the prophet was indeed the pen of a swift scribe,
because /875/ what the Lord taught him without any lapse of time
through inward illumination, this he declared to men outwardly in time
through the service of his tongue.

By his name too, which means ‘helper’,^ Ezra openly stands for the
Lord. For it is he by whom alone the people of the faithful are
constantly liberated from tribulations and, as though from captivity in
Babylon to freedom in Jerusalem, are brought from the ‘confusion’ of
the vices to the ‘peace’'^ and serenity of the virtues as they advance by
the steps of meritorious deeds. In the second psalm of the same
anabathmov’ (i.e. of ‘the Ascents’), the psalmist proclaims to all those
who strive for the highest under whose leadership they ought to strive [310]
to attain it when he suggests: My help is from the Lord who made
heaven and earth.^ In his actions too Ezra was a figure of the Lord,
since Ezra himself led back no small portion of the people from the
captivity to Jerusalem and at the same time conveyed money and
vessels consecrated to God for the glory of his temple and when
through his pontifical authority^ he purged these people of their

1 Heb. 10:16; Jer. 31:33.

2 Ps. 45:1 (44:2).

3 Jerome Epistula 53 (CSEL 54: 61.19).

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18; 121.9-10).

5 Greek ana- ‘up’ + bathmos ‘step’ = anabathmos, ‘steps going up’ or ‘ascent’. Psalms
120-34 (119-33 in the Vulgate) are known as the Songs of Ascent.

6 Ps. 121:2 (120:2).

7 pontificali auctoritate. This is the first of several references to Ezra as pontifex (see
also In Ezr. 2.1587, 1627, 1708, 1821, 1950; and 3.1078, 1134, where 1 have chosen not
to translate the word), a term usually translated as ‘high priest’, though that office is one
Ezra is believed not to have held: see Grabbe 1998: 26. My view is that Bede’s use of
the term is meant to underscore Ezra’s pre-eminent priestly authority, evident in his
role as teacher and corrector of other priests, a role which for Bede called to mind the
duties of a bishop, as his telling gloss ‘pontifex, i.e. an archbishop’ (see In Ezr. 2.1587)
makes clear: for discussion, see Introduction, pp. xxxiv-xxxv; also DeGregorio 2004:
18-20. Meyvaert 1997: 285 takes this occurrence of pontificali as support for his idea
that Bede subjected On Ezra and Nehemiah to a series of revisions, arguing that it repre¬
sents the sole instance of the term pontifex in the commentary and must therefore be a
relic from an earlier redaction of the work ‘seemingly overlooked in the course of revi¬
sion’. Meyvaert assumes here that Bede, early in his career, believed Ezra to be a high
priest, but later realized he was mistaken. None of this appears to be credible, however.

114

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

foreign wives. What all this suggests with regard to what is done or is
going to be done in the Church by the Lord is clear to the learned
reader, but we will take pains to make them accessible to the less
learned as well.

For the fact that Ezra goes up from Babylon and some of the chil¬
dren of Israel and descendants of the priests and the Levites go up with
him signifies the merciful provision of our Redeemer by which,
appearing in the flesh, he entered into the ‘confusion’ of this world
though he himself was free from the confusion of sins so that, when he
returned, he might free us from all ‘confusion’ and lead us with him
into the restfulness of celestial ‘peace’.^ /900/ In the present Church,
we have received the pledge of this eternal peace from the Lord who
said: Peace I leave with you; I give you my peace? That is, ‘I leave
temporal peace on earth for those who are travelling in it; I give eternal
peace to those who arrive in the celestial homeland’. In this regard, it
is well said that Ezra began to go up from Babylon in the first month
and in the fifth month arrived in Jerusalem with the descendants of
the exiles whom he was leading. For the reason that the journey from
Babylonia to Jerusalem is completed in four months is that through
the four books of the Holy Gospels we learn the faith and the sacra¬
ments of the truth,^ whereby we ought, with the Lord’s assistance, to
be snatched from the captivity of the ancient enemy and so ascend to
the freedom of the glory of the children of God? In these same four
books are contained the precepts of the actions by which we can arrive,
as though by daily steps, at the promised heavenly rewards.

Nor is it without the figure of a mystery that he began to go up from
Babylon on the first day of the month and again on the first day of
the month arrived in Jerusalem. For the beginning of the month, in
which the moon is believed to borrow new light from the sun,^ desig¬
nates the new beginning of a celestial gift. And it is fitting that it
was on the first day of the first month that Ezra went up from Babylon
with those whom he was releasing from captivity because the begin¬
ning of our holy way of life, in which we renounce Satan and his

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18; 121.9-10).

2 John 14:27.

3 Cf. Bede De tab. 2 (89.1846-49).

4 Rom. 8:21.

5 See above, In Ezr. 1.1116-18 and the accompanying note, for an explanation of
this natural phenomenon.

BOOK TWO

115

kingdom/ is brought about in us through the illumination of divine
mercy; and that it was on the first day of the fifth month that he arrived
in Jerusalem because it also occurs in us not through our own freedom
of will but through the illumination of divine light that, after hearing
the prophetic words of the Gospels, we are incorporated into the
members of the Holy Church. And a beautiful 7925/ and wholesome
custom has developed in the Church through the teaching of the
Fathers that the mystery of the four Gospels is explained and their [311]
beginnings are recited to those who are being catechized.^ Likewise,

Ezra, accompanied by those who had been liberated from the enemies,
arrives in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month because when,
having fulfilled the four precepts of the Holy Gospel,^ we enter the
celestial kingdom as if we were celebrating a new beginning of the
month, because we already discern the joys of the new light in the sun
of righteousness‘s and, as though after four months of bright action that
we have spent on the road of life, we spend the fifth month of eternal
reward in the light of the heavenly homeland.

[7:9] And on the first day, it says, of the fifth month he came to
Jernsalem, according to the gracions hand of his God npon him, that
is, confirmed by grace and divine protection, through which he would
successfully complete the journey he had begun. Similarly, in the
mystical sense, the mediator of God and men^ came into the Church

1 On the renunciation of Satan during the rite of baptism, see above In Ezr. 1.1061-67
and the accompanying note.

2 This passage has a close parallel at De tab. 2 (89.1849-55), where it is clearer that
the liturgical rite being described is that of the apertio aurium or ‘opening of the ears’
(see esp. lines 1852-53 and Holder’s translation, 101, n. 2). One of the preparatory rites
of those being baptized at Easter, this ceremony involved the reading of the opening
verses of each of the four Gospels to the attending catechumens. This was done, Bede
explains, ‘so that from then on they [i.e. the catechumens] may know and remember
which books, and how many, [contain] the words by which they ought chiefly to be
instructed in the true faith’-He tab. 2 (89.1853-55); trans. Holder 101. Evidence for the
ceremony survives from as early as the third century in Hippolytus’sZlpoito/ic Tradition.
For general discussion, see de Puniet 1924; for reference to Bede, see O Carragain 1994:
6-7, n. 24.

3 ‘four precepts of the Holy Gospel’ = quattuor sancti evangeliipraeceptis. The phrase
is odd, and it is possible that the text should read quattuor sancti evangelii librorum prae¬
ceptis, ‘the precepts of the four books of the Holy Gospel’. Cf. In Ezr. 2.907: quattuor
libros sancti evangelii.

4 Mai. 4:2.

5 1 Tim. 2:5.

116

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

according to the gracious hand of his God upon him, i.e. according to
the disposition of the divine power that was in him. For God was recon¬
ciling the world to himself in Christ} This hand was on him in
accordance with the fact that he became a man. This is why he says:
The Father is greater than 1} For greater than Christ’s humanity is the
divinity not only of the Father but of Christ himself and the Holy Spirit
too, which is one. Having been exalted in suffering by this hand of
divine power, he ascended to the walls of the heavenly city and revealed
the pathway of ascent^ to his faithful ones who humbly follow him.
[7:10] For Ezra prepared his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and
to do and to teach in Israel its commandments and judgements. Oh
how great /950/ is the virtue of this utterance, what sublime merit that
a man should prepare his heart to serve the divine will and be able to
say: My heart is prepared, Oh God, my heart is prepared; I will sing and
recite a psalm to the Lord,^ i.e. T will both exult in the Lord with all my
mind and will accomplish his ordinances by carrying them out in
deeds’. Thus he prepared his heart to discover and rewrite the Law of
the Lord that the devouring fire had destroyed;^ he also prepared his
heart to first fulfil the Law himself by carrying it out and only then
open his mouth to teach others.^ In the same way, this can manifestly
apply to the Lord Jesus. For he prepared his own heart to discover the
Lord’s Law because he divinely provided for himself a man to assume,
such that he would be not only without sin but also full of grace and
truth,^ because, with no law of sin fighting against him, he would keep
God’s Law without any contradiction of mind or flesh.® Hence he says
in a psalm: At the beginning of the book it is written about me that I
should do your will: Oh my God, I have desired it, and desired your law
in the midst of my heart} In the same way, the Lord ‘investigated’

1 2 Cor. 5:19.

2 John 14:28.

3 ascensionis iter, a phrase perhaps borrowed from Gregory Regula pastoralis 3.23
(PL 76:92).

4 Ps. 57:7 (56:8)

5 4 Esdras 14:9-48; and cf. above In Ezr. 2.791-96 and the accompanying note.

6 Cf. In Ezr. 2.1056-57 and 1648-51, on the theme of Ezra as a model teacher.

7 Cf. John 1:14.

8 In other words, by becoming incarnate and thereby providing a human nature for
his divinity, Christ himself was the most perfect fulfillment of the Law possible.

9 Ps. 40:7-8 (39:8-9).

BOOK TWO

117

God’s Law in that he rejected the traditions of the Pharisees and taught [312]
how Holy Scripture was to be understood mystically and what spiri¬
tual secrets it concealed beneath the veil of the letter,^ and because he
showed that the decrees of the Gospel that he himself brought to the
world were more perfect and more pleasing to God the Father than
the ones that he had sent earlier through Moses7 Hence he himself
says: You have heard that it was said to them of old, ‘You shall love your
neighbour and hate your enemy’. But I tell you: Love your enemies; do
good to those who persecute you,^ and other things of this sort.

[7:11] 7975/ This is a copy of the letter King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra
the priest, and so on. This Artaxerxes, who in his own way pays homage
to God’s temple and priests with a most devout mind and offers willing
service to him, like his predecessor Darius signifies Christian rulers.'*

Nor should one marvel if we have said that the successors of Cyrus,
who caused the Lord’s temple and city to be built, who loved and
assisted his servants and Law, contain a figure of Christian kings, since
the Lord himself said through the prophet that Cyrus came as a figure
of his own Son and deigned that Cyrus should be honoured through
his name: Thus the Lord says to my anointed Cyrus,^ and the other
things about him that we have spoken about more extensively above.^

[7:12] ‘Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a most learned
scribe of the Law of the God of heaven: Greetings. He names him a
most learned scribe of the Law of the God of heaven because the repu¬
tation of his divine virtue had reached even the king himself. Through
this virtue, he restored the Law set ablaze by the Chaldeans in the same
words as previously although in a different script.^ And he himself
names him the God of heaven to distinguish him from those gods
whom he realized the foolish madness of wretched people had

1 legmen litterae: this phrase appears in Gregory Moralia in Job 2.36.59 (CCSL
143:97.13), in a passage that deals similarly with the blinding literalism of the Jews.

2 On the New Law’s superseding the Old, cf. Bede Horn. 1.2 (10.107-33).

3 Matt. 5:43-44.

4 Cf. In Ezr. 2.263-61.

5 Is. 45:1. In this verse, Isaiah calls Cyrus christo meo. ‘my anointed’; in Latin and
Greek, ‘christ’ translates the Hebrew word nmstah. ‘anointed one, messiah’: cf. above
In Ezr. 1.148-61 and the accompanying note.

6 Cf. In Ezr. 1.108-215.

7 4 Esdras 14:9-48; and cf. above In Ezr. 2.791-96 and 813-17, along with the accom¬
panying notes.

118

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

invented from dead men or indeed non-existing ones.^ I hope the
reader will not object if I briefly run through the text of this letter and
observe the extent to which it accords with the character of Christian
kings.

[7:13] ‘ It has been decreed by me’, it says, ‘that whomever it pleases
in my kingdom from the people of Israel and from the priests and the
Levites to go to Jernsalem, may go with you’. He gives permission to
all who wish to go to Jerusalem, but he does not compel anyone to go.
Christian rulers also 71000/ force no one, so that the desire for faith is
not uncertain and doubtful, but allow all whom it pleases in their
kingdom to worship Christ.

[7:14] ‘From before the king and his seven counsellors you are sent to
visit Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is
in your hand’. In the Book of Esther also we read that it was a custom
of the kings of the Persians, in all things that had to be done or decided,
[313] to make use of the advice of seven wise men.^ Now the faithful make
use of seven counsellors when in all that they do they follow the
precepts and decrees of Divine Scripture, about which the psalmist
says: The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried by fire,
purged from the earth, refined seven times f i.e. perfected by the holy
illumination of the sevenfold Spirit.

If it seems incongruous to anyone that the counsellors of this
Persian king, through whom the people and prophets of the Lord are
sent back to their homeland when the captivity was relaxed, can
symbolize something good in the Holy Church, let him read the works
of the Fathers, who have stated that the deeds or misfortunes of the
reprobate kings Saul and Jechonia (Jehoiachin) designate in a figura¬
tive way the most holy works of our Redeemer, understanding by the
death of Saul, who was anointed as king but was slaughtered as a due
reward for his wicked crimes,'* the innocent death of Christ the king,
and typologically relating the removal of Jehoiachin from Judah to
Babylon^ that he endured because of his sins*^ to the grace of our same

1 Cf. Bede Horn. 1.20 (142.47-53).

2 Esth. 1:13-14.

3Ps. 12:6(11:7).

4 Cf. 1 Sam. 31:3-13. Cf. Question 6 in Bede’s On Eight Questions, trans. Holder
156-58.

5 Reading in Babilonem for et Bethleem: see Appendix 1.

6 Cf. 2 Kings 24:6-16; 2 Chron. 36:9-10.

BOOK TWO

119

Redeemer, whereby, leaving the Jews behind because of their perfidy,
he deigned to travel to save nations throughout the worldd These
Fathers have taught that the words or deeds of Pharaoh or
Nebuchadnezzar should be understood typologically as enemies of the
Church. 71025/ Pharaoh, for instance, ordered that the male infants of
God’s people be killed in the river and the female ones be spared,^
because the devil desires to extinguish what is strong and firm^ in us
and feed what is unstable and frail.'* Likewise, Nebuchadnezzar
commanded all the peoples subject to him to fall down and worship
his statue when they heard the sound of the instruments and the musi¬
cians,^ and the devil is eager to turn humankind away from uprightness
of mind through the pleasure of earthly pomp and to subvert the hearts
of the deceived into following the covetousness which is the service of
idols.^ If, then, the wicked works of the reprobate have stood as a figure
not just of evil but also of good things, why could not the good deeds
and words of good men that are contained in a prophetic book
prefigure the good actions of those who follow them? Likewise, let us
consider the works of Saint Augustine, who said that even the seven
husbands of the one woman who died without children, concerning
whom the Sadducees tested the Lord by denying resurrection, hold a
definite figure of ecclesiastical mystery, and taught that the woman,
her sterility and death, and the death of the husbands too, are figures
of remarkable things,’ despite the fact that neither the Lord himself [314]
nor any of the evangelists recounted this story in their own person; on
the contrary, these were the things which the impious in their wicked
speech had brought forward against the Lord but which the evangel-

1 Bede addresses the question of evil deeds symbolizing good things and vice versa
in two other works: In Sam. 2 (91.993-92.1026), which closely parallels the present
passage, and/n Tob. (5.3-8). See also/n Gen.4(236.1516-20), where Bede’s chief source
is Gregory Moralia in Job 4, Praef. 4 (CCSL 143:161.117-18), although the idea was
widespread among the Fathers: see de Lubac 2000: 2.64-67. See too Bede’s remarks in
On Eight Questions, trans. Flolder 157.

2 Cf. Ex. 1:22.

3 Reading et firma for forma: see Appendix 1. Another possibility is suggested by
Rabanus Maurus, who, in quoting this passage, has fortia in nobis opera exstinguere: see
Expositio in librum Esther (PL 109:638D).

4 Cf. Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos 136.17 (CCSL 40:1975.12-15).

5 Cf. Dan. 3:5 and Jerome In Esaiam 2.5.11/12 (CCSL 73:72.35-38).

6 Col. 3:5.

7 Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos 65.1 (CCSL 39:838.24-839.51).

120

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

ists set down in their writings because of his most holy replyd

Ezra, therefore, is sent from before the king and his seven counsel¬
lors to visit Judea and Jerusalem. Worldly rulers also, once converted
to the faith and strengthened too by the exhortations of the Holy
Scriptures, 71050/ desire the Lord Christ to come to save his Church
and assemble it from the nations^ through the daily ‘help’ that Ezra’s
name signifies,^ proclaiming with an insistent voice: Oh Lord God of
virtues, turn now and look down from heaven and see and visit this vine¬
yard, and direct that which your right hand has planted^ It says, to visit
Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in
your hand. For the Law of God was in Ezra’s hand because he not only
preached it with his tongue but fulfilled it by his action. Our Lord too,
appearing in the flesh, held the Law in his hand, not only because he
followed the precepts of the Law in all things but also because he had
the edicts of the Law in his power, both once establishing the Law
through Moses as he desired, and now altering the same Law through
himself as he desired and bringing it to a more perfect state. Hence he
said: You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,... but I tell
you.^ And it is remarkable that an expression which the prophets were
wont to use is found in this letter of Artaxerxes, as it says that the Law
of God is in the hand of his servant. For it is written: The word of the
Lord came to be in the hand of Haggai the prophetf and the Lord has
done that which he spoke in the hand of his servant Elijahf and the Lord
testified to them in Israel and in Judah by the hand of all the prophets^
- no doubt, because prophets used to preach those things that are of
God to everyone no less by acting than by speaking. It goes on:

[7:15] ‘And you are to take with you the silver and gold that the king
and his counsellors have freely given to the God of Israel, whose taber¬
nacle is in Jerusalem. /1075/ Note the faith and wisdom of the king and
his counsellors, who understood that the gifts that they wished to offer
the Lord should be offered rather by one who had the Law of God in

1 Matt. 22:25-28.

2 Cf. Ps. 107:2-3 (106:2-3); also Bede De tempi. 1 (172.1032-35).

3 Jerome Epistula 53 (CSEL 54:461.19).

4 Ps. 80:14-15 (79:15-16).

5 Matt. 5:21-22.

6 Hag. 1:1.

7 2 Kings 10:10.

8 2 Kings 17:13.

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121

his hand, i.e. who fulfilled it in deed. And it is remarkable how faith¬
fully and learnedly the king says that the Lord, whom above he had
called the God of heaven,^ has a ‘tabernacle’ in Jerusalem. For a taber¬
nacle^ is something we often use on a journey.^ And the God of heaven
has a tabernacle in Jerusalem because he who has his eternal seat in
heaven himself deigns to dwell for a time with the saints who are [315]
pilgrims in this Church. Hence there is that saying from the
Apocalypse: Behold the tabernacle of God is with men3 But since the
blessed Ezra represented the type not only of preachers of the Holy
Church, of whom he himself was one, but also of the Lord Saviour to
whose members he belonged, we in a sense offer our gifts through him
whose help we require in all things so that the good things we do may
be acceptable to God the Father. For No one, he says, comes to the
Father except through me] and John says concerning him: For he
himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins]

[7:16-18] ‘And all the silver and gold whatsoever you may find in the
whole province of Babylon, and that the people are wiUing to offer,
and from those priests who have willingly offered to the house of their
God which is in Jerusalem - take freely and buy diligently with this
money calves, rams and lambs, and their sacrifices and libations, and
offer them upon the altar of the temple of your God, which is in
Jerusalem. But if it seems good to you and your brethren to do some¬
thing with the rest of the silver and gold, do it according to the wUl of
your God. The history is clear, in that 71100/ the reason the king and
his counsellors’ gave money to Ezra to bring to the Lord’s temple, and
the reason they also wished others to give, was so that victims, sacri¬
fices and libations might be bought from this money to be offered upon
the altar of God, and if any of the money was left over, this was to be
spent in no other way except according to the will of God. Here we
should note too that when it speaks of the priests who were going to
make offerings for the house of their God, it plainly teaches that.

1 Ezra 7:12.

2 Tabernacle here means a tent or temporary shelter: see above In Ezr. 1.1037^0
and the accompanying note.

3 Cf. below In Ezr. 1.1097-98.

4 Rev. 21:3.

5 John 14:6.

6 1 John 2:2.

7 Reading consiliatores for consialiatores: see Appendix 1.

122

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

although some of the priests and Levhes went up to Jerusalem with
Ezra, yet others stayed behind in Babylonia with the remainder of
their people.

The allegorical meaning is clear too because the reason the faithful
want their good deeds to shine forth in the Holy Church is so that as
a result of these deeds they too might deserve to have a share with the
saints and others might profit from their examples. For it is as though
our sacrifices, libations and victims are bought with gold and silver for
offering to the Lord when, having seen the brightness of our works,
our neighbours are turned to the duty of devotion by which they them¬
selves also by living well are consecrated to the Lord. But if any of the
silver and gold was left over and was not due to be spent on the offer¬
ings, he commanded that it too be administered according to God’s
will and pleasure. For there are certain virtues of the saints which are
very illustrious but cannot be presented to everyone as a model for
good works and can be recounted solely to glorify God’s grace, such
as that Daniel and Jeremiah prophesied as children,^ that John did the
same when he was not yet born,^ that Cornelius received the Holy
[316] Spirit along with his family before he was baptized,^ and as are innu¬
merable miracles of the saints which, like 71125/ silver or gold, shine
forth in the house of the Lord. Yet offerings to be put upon the altar
cannot be bought from the same silver and gold, because when we hear
of such things, we ought indeed to marvel at them as at divine things
but not as things we could possibly imitate.'* The word ‘sacrifices’,
properly speaking, referred to offerings of produce of the earth, such
as bread, flour, and ears of corn, while ‘libations’ referred to offerings
of wine and other liquids.

[7:19] ‘The vessels also that are entrusted to you for the service of the
house of your God, deliver them before the God of Jerusalem. Not

only silver and gold of diverse weight but also vessels are entrusted to
Ezra to be brought to Jerusalem. But our Lord also, whom Ezra here
represents as a type, has brought before God the Father in the heav¬
enly Jerusalem all the vessels that are entrusted to him by men, among
which there is Paul the chosen vessel] and those whom Paul calls the

1 Dan. 1:11-13; Jer. 1:6-13.

2 Luke 1:41.

3 Cf. Acts 10:44.

4 For similar wariness about imitation of the saints, see below, In Ezr. 3.1427-29.

5 Acts 9:15.

BOOK TWO

123

vessels of mercy} About these vessels he himself says in the Gospel:

Or how else can anyone enter the house of a strong man and steal his
vessels unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his
house? In fact the king of Babylon (i.e. the devil wickedly ruling over
the reprobate) was strong but, conquered and bound by the Lord, he
lost those vessels (i.e. the hearts of the elect) which he unjustly
possessed, nor, when the Lord carried off these vessels and returned
them to the heavenly city whose very own they were, was he able to
oppose him.

[7:21-22] ‘And I, King Artaxerxes, have ordered and decreed to all
the gnardians of the pnblic treasury who are beyond the river, that
whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven,
may ask of you, 71150/ you are to give it without delay, up to a hundred
talents of silver, a hundred cores of grain, a hundred baths of wine.
Christian rulers also order all who are subjected to them to give what¬
ever our Lord and Pontifex may ask of them without any hesitation,
holding back nothing at all; rather, let them be swift to carry out the
commands of the divine will. Let them give him gold in the confession
of the true faith, grain in the display of good works, wine in the fervour
of love, and oil in the love and cheerfulness of mercy. And all these
things to the number of one hundred are ordered to be given to the
high priest and scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, i.e. to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who, bringing down heavenly commandments to us from
the Father, has promised heavenly rewards in his Father’s house to
those who follow them so that,^ for nothing other than the thanks of
heavenly reward, we may press onwards with good undertakings. For
the number one hundred, which in calculating with the fingers passes [317]
from the left to the right,"^ customarily designates those joys that are
in the right hand of the judge, i.e. in eternal life. Now it is related that
a talent can be measured in three different ways: the least of fifty
librae] the middle of seventy-two librae, and the highest of one

1 Rom. 9:23.

2 Matt. 12:29.

3 Reading ut for et: see Appendix 1.

4 Cf. In Ezr. 3.221-24; also De tab. 2 (85.1688-91). A reference to the finger reck¬
oning technique of computus, in which the left hand was used for representing units and
tens, the right for hundreds and thousands. Bede explains this counting technique at
length in DTR 1 (268.1- 273.107); for discussion see the notes to Wallis’s translation,
pp. 254-63.

5 libra = the Roman pound.

124

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

hundred and twenty librae; a core is of thirty pecks,^ a bate^ (which is
also called an oephi) the tenth part of a core, i.e. three pecks.^
[7:22-23] ‘...and salt without measure. Let all that belongs to the cult
of the God of heaven be granted with dUigence in the house of the God
of heaven. It is known to all that salt designates wisdom,"* which is why
in everyday speech obtuse people are called ‘unsalted’; but it depends
what kind of salt it is. For on the one hand the Lord ordains through
the Law that salt should be offered at every sacrifice,^ and says in/1175/
the Gospel, Have salt in you, and have peace among you;^ on the other
hand, it is not in vain that we read that David slew the Edomites in the
valley of the salt-pits.’ Doubtless this is because we are commanded
to offer the salt of heavenly wisdom (in which catechumens are initi¬
ated)® in all the sacrifices of our good deeds; but David beats down the
salt-pits of the valleys together with their inhabitants because Christ
destroys the lowest type, i.e. worldly wisdom, along with those who
follow it. Consequently, it is here rightly ordered that salt be granted
without measure with diligence in the house of the God of heaven, no
doubt because it is necessary that whatever wisdom anyone has, he
must display it all in doing the will of his Creator. And it should be
recalled that in the earlier parts of this book® we read that the
Samaritans who wrote to the other Artaxerxes said that they were
mindful of the salt that they had eaten in the palace,*® and that for this

1 modius = the Roman corn-measure, a peck.

2 batus = a Hebrew measure for liquids, containing about nine gallons. In On the
Temple, Bede defines it as follows; ‘A bate is a measure of the Hebrews, which they
themselves call a bath, which holds three bushels; the same is true of an oephi which
they also call an epha, but the oephi has to do with the measurement of various grains:
wheat, barley, and pulse; but a bate is used for liquids: wine, oil and water’, De tempi. 2
(212.797-8); trans. Connolly 90.

3 Cf. Isidore Etymologiae 16.25.22; 16.26.12,17.

4 Cf. Mark 9:50, Col. 4:6; also Gregory Regula pastoralis 2.4 (PL 76:31D) and
Homiliae in Ezechielem 1.8.8 (CCSL 142:106.188-91).

5 Lev. 2:13.

6 Mark 9:50.

7 Ps. 60:2 (59:2); 1 Chron. 18:12.

8 In the Roman baptismal rite, salt was placed on the tongues of the catechumens
before they entered the church to receive the sacrament: see Isidore De ecclesiasticis
officiis 2.21.3^ (CCSL 113:96.25-97.36), who in this passage also equates salt with
wisdom.

9 See Ezra 4:14-15, along with Bede’s comments at In Ezr. 1.1783-94.

10 ‘had eaten the salt of the palace’, i.e. have been in the pay of the court and thus
are subservient to the king.

BOOK TWO

125

reason they were unable to allow God’s temple and city to be built
against the king’s welfare. But now this Artaxerxes orders all the
guardians of the public treasury to give (among other gifts) their own
salt for the house of the God of heaven, as much as was needed. For
in the earlier passage, we learn that heretics are sometimes motivated
to wage war upon the Church through a fraudulent human taste for
wisdom, whereas in this passage it is implied that, when wise men are
converted to the faith, they often aid the faith itself through the disci¬
plines of this same secular wisdom when they use it to prevail more
soundly over its adversaries.

[7:24] ‘And we also make it known to yon regarding all the priests and
the Levites and the singers and the door-keepers and the Nathinnites
and the ministers of the honse of this God, that yon have no anthority
71200/ to impose tax or tribnte or dnty on them. From this privilege by
which the priests, the Levites, and the other servants of God’s house
are made exempt from taxes, it is clearly shown that the remaining
ordinary people of the children of Israel paid tribute to the king when [318]
they arrived in their homeland, and we learn that the king acted with
discerning foresight in every way, so that those who were always occu¬
pied in divine service might be freed from servitude to him, and those
who had no possessions of their own in the land but lived from the
tithes of the people might not be forced by anyone to pay tribute. From
all these provisions the king is quite clearly shown not only to have
loved but also to have learned very well what the practice of divine
service demands.

[7:25-26] ‘And you, Ezra, in accordance with the wisdom of your God,
which is in your hand, appoint judges and magistrates and let them
judge all the people who are beyond the river, that is those who know
the law of your God; but teach freely those who do not know it. And
anyone who does not diligently carry out the law of your God and the
law of the king shall be condemned, either to death, or to exile, or to
the confiscation of his property, or surely to prison.’ The king repeats
the words that he had said and confirms the truth that he recognized
by repeating his words. For above he said that God’s law was in Ezra’s
hand, but now he says that the wisdom of his God is in his hand, surely
because God’s law is wisdom, as the psalmist says: The mouth of the
righteous man shall ponder wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judge¬
ment. The law of his God is in his heart.^ And the righteous man has

1 Ps. 37:30-31 (36:30-31).

126

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

God’s law and wisdom in his own hand so long as in everything he does
and says he shows that he is mindful of the divine will. The literal sense,
therefore, is clear, 71225/ and the spiritual interpretation is also clear
because our Lord and Saviour has the wisdom of God in his hand. For
he himself is the power of God and the wisdom of God^ who alone has
the authority to establish judges and heads of Churches who can judge
all matters according to his will and preach his faith to the uninstructed
throughout the world. And everyone who treats the decrees of that
law with contempt will be punished either now or in the life to come,
each according to the measure of his own sin. Therefore Artaxerxes,
writing of these things to Ezra and conveying in his letter the love he
had towards the practice of religion, clearly expresses what devotion
Christian kings in later days would have and what they would do with
respect to the true faith. For this reason, we have taken care briefly to
recall his letter (although we have omitted some details) so that the
reader may recognize the extent to which it accords with those things
which Christian rulers, now that the grace of the Gospel has been
revealed, have done for the peace of the Holy Church. Indeed, we can
relate the person of Ezra in a figurative way not only to the Lord Christ
but also to any leader or teacher in the Church, to whom kings and
rulers have often sent letters on behalf of the state of the faithful. And
rightly Ezra himself, to whom this letter was given, subsequently bursts
forth in praise of God, saying:

[ 319 ] [7:27] Blessed be the Lord the God of our fathers, who has put it in

the king’s heart to glorify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.

And who would hesitate to confess that those words of the king were
holy and mystical, when a propheE tells us that they were divinely
inspired and declares that the house of the Lord was glorified by him?
[7:28] And I, strengthened by the hand of the Lord my God which was
on me, 71250/ gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. He
calls the hand of God the power of God by which he performs all
things. And it is right that the one who gathers them in order to lead
them from Babylon to Jerusalem is he who, we learn, himself has the
hand of God upon him to strengthen him, no doubt because a person
is made competent to bring others to God through his teaching only
when he himself is first strengthened inwardly in mind through his
grace against all that impedes the holy work.

1 1 Cor. 1:24.

2 I.e. Ezra.

BOOK TWO

127

[8:1-14] These, then, are the heads of the families and genealogies of
those who came up with me from Babylon during the reign of King
Artaxerxes. From the descendants of Phinehas: Gershom, and so on

until the end of the genealogy. He carefully enumerates the leaders
who came up with him from Babylon and unfolds their genealogy. He
takes pains too to add their total, which reached 1,440, to suggest that
the names of those who come up from the ‘confusion’^ of this world
are contained in the book of life of the Lamb.^ But also all teachers
(i.e. the heads of the families) of God’s people also receive increases
in their eternal reward commensurate with the number of souls they
have acquired for the Lord, according to that parable in the Gospel
wherein the good and wise servant said: Master, your pound has earned
ten pounds, and the master replied: Take charge often cities,^ which is
to say ‘appear more glorious in the heavenly kingdom because of the
life of those whom you have taught’.'*

[8:15] I gathered them to the river that flows down towards Ahava. I

do not recall having read this place-name anywhere else. But since
71275/ in the following lines it is written. There, by the Ahava River, I
proclaimed a fast,^ and a bit further on. On the twelfth day of the first
month we set out from the Ahava River,^ it seems probable that the
Ahava is a river and that some other river flows down into it, and that
Ezra gathered those who went up with him at the place where these
rivers joined. Josephus, however, puts ‘Euphrates’ in place of this
name.’ So the Ahava can be thought of not improperly as some trib¬
utary of the Euphrates.

[8:15-16] And we stayed there three days, and I sought among the [320]
people and the priests for sons of Levi, and I found none there. So I
sent Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, and so on. Ezra fittingly arranged that
before he began so great a journey, he might carefully provide for
himself a sufficient supply of ministers of God’s house in order to carry

1 Babylon = ‘confusion of sinners’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:62.18).

2 Cf. Rev. 21:27.

3 Luke 19:16-19.

4 That is to say, teachers of the faith will be judged on the basis of the virtues - or
lack of them - of those for whom they have been responsible: on this theme, cf. In Ezr.
1.559-67 and 2.629-32,1370-80, 1479-82,1517-22.

5 Ezra 8:21.

6 Ezra 8:31.

7 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.5.2.

128

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

out those things which were necessary for the needs of the temple
when he arrived in Jerusalem.

[8:17-18] And I sent them to Iddo, who is the leader in the region of
Casphia,^ and I pnt in their month the words that they shonld speak
to Iddo and his brethren the Nathinnites in the region of Casphia, so
that they might bring ns attendants for the honse of onr God. And
throngh the gracious hand of our God upon us they brought us a most
learned man of the descendants of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel. The
Caspian Sea, as Orosius writes, rises from the ocean in the northern
region, and its two coastlands in the vicinity of the ocean are thought to
be deserted and uncultivated. From here toward the south it extends
through a long channel until, spread out over a wide expanse, it termi¬
nates at the base of the Caucasian Mountains. It has on the east up to
the Ocean many nations of the Hyrcanians and Scythians /1300/ who
wander over a wide area because of the widespread barrenness of the
land', on the west it has many nations. But the largest^ region is gener¬
ally called Albania', the more distant region near the sea and the Caspian
Mountains is named the land of the Amazons.^ It is worth noting here
that although historians write ‘Caspian’, Ezra in this passage calls it
‘Casphia’. For the Hebrews, not having the letter ‘p’, use the letter ‘ph’
in Greek or barbarian names, as in ‘Phetrus’ or ‘Philatus’.'* Thus, as a
result of the captivity of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, the descendants
of Israel are shown to have reached even as far as the region of
Casphia, since Ezra sent to that place for ministers of the Lord’s house
to be brought to him - namely Levites and Nathinnites, whom

1 In the Hebrew Bible this word appears as ‘Casiphia', location unknown, but usually
presumed to be in Babylonia: see Herion 1992. Bede is misled by the Latin spelling
‘Casphia’ into identifying this unknown place with the Caspian Sea.

2 phirima. This word appears to be a corruption; the original text of Orosius has
proxima, ‘nearest’. Bede may have found the word phirima in his text of Orosius and
out of respect for the text simply copied what he found; as Colgrave and Mynors
(‘Textual Introduction’ to HE, p. xxxix) point out, Bede’s practice was to transcribe a
text ‘very accurately, including even its errors, and the result was faithfully transmitted
by the transcribers of the finished work’.

3 Orosius Historiarum adversospaganos 1.2.47-50 (CSEL 5:20.7-21.3).

4 Bede makes the same claim about Hebrew pronunciation in two other works: see
In Luc. 2 (133.1297-1302) and Retract. Act. 9 (138.39-14) and 16 (151.42-46). The idea,
which he probably derived from Jerome In Danielem 4.11.44/45 (CCSL
75A:935.468-71) and Isidore Etymologiae 9.2.58, is misleading, for Hebrew does have
the letter P, but after a vowel it changes to PH.

BOOK TWO

129

Josephus calls ‘sacred servants’J Concerning these people it should be
noted that they were living very freely and peacefully even among
foreigners, since, at Ezra’s command or requests, they were immedi¬
ately able to appoint so great an army. For the catalogue of them that
follows^ shows that there were 258 men chosen in that expedition;
when these were added, Ezra is found to have had a total of nearly
1,700 men in his army.

[8:21] And I proclaimed there a fast by the Ahava River, so that we
might humble ourselves before the Lord our God and ask him for a
safe journey for ourselves and our children, and so on until it says. So
we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and it turned out well for
us.^ This is an example of fasting and praying when we want to begin [321 ]
something of great virtue, both because a faithful hope in the Lord
never fails and also because is it impossible for us not to obtain what
is just if we seek it from the merciful Helper with self-control and
prayers combined with faith. 71325/ But we should pay careful atten¬
tion to the fact that it teaches that fasting comes first and only then
does prayer follow. For it says first. And I proclaimed a fast, so that
we might humble ourselves before the Lord, and then adds, and so that
we might ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, and so on
until the final sentence. So we fasted and petitioned our God for this,
and it turned out well for us. For it is fitting in every way that whoever
sets out to beseech God’s mercy should first show himself worthy of
being heard by living more continently, so that when petitioning the
Lord he need not doubt that the things he asks for will turn out well
for him.'*

[8:24-25] And I set apart twelve of the leaders of the priests,
Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brethren, and I
weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels for the
consecration^ of the house of our God, which the king and his coun¬
sellors and his princes and all the Israelites who had been found there
had offered. It has frequently been said that the silver and gold and
the vessels that were being sent from Babylon to Jerusalem designate

1 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.5.1.

2 Cf. Ezra 8:18-20.

3 Ezra 8:23.

4 Cf. Bede Epist. Cath. (185.77-95); on Bede and prayer, see DeGregorio 1999.

5 Bede’s text has consecrationis\ the Vulgate has comecrata. On Bede’s text of
Ezra-Nehemiah, see Introduction, pp. xvii-xxi.

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BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

souls that are converted to the Lord from the confusion and sins of this
worldd So it is fitting that Ezra entrusts vessels of this kind to the
priests to convey them to Jerusalem, because all who desire to join the
community of the Holy Church must be washed in baptism and conse¬
crated to the Lord through the hands of priests. Equally, those who by
sinning have been drawn away from the Church’s fellowship into the
devil’s servitude, and who by remaining in their sins have fallen into
the captivity of the king of Babylon, must be reconciled to the Holy
Church by doing penance through the office of a priest. 71350/ And it
is well that there are twelve priests to whom this charge was assigned
because there are twelve apostles by whose teaching the Church was
first established throughout the world and by whose successors it does
not cease to be built until the end of the world.^ In keeping with which,
Ezra said this to these same priests:

[8:28-29] ‘You are the holy ones of the Lord, and the vessels are holy,
and the silver and the gold which has been freely offered to the Lord
the God of your fathers. Be watchful and guard them.’ For teachers of
the Church must never forget the sacred state by which they were
consecrated to the Lord through the Holy Spirit on the day of redemp¬
tion, and which they prepare their hearers to receive as well. In this
way those who have already been offered to the Lord through the rudi-
[322] ments of the faith should be strengthened more and more through the
examples and admonitions of those who have preceded them in the
faith and may become worthy to enter the heavenly city. These
teachers must be vigilant in all things and take care that none of the
souls entrusted to them (i.e. the Lord’s vessels) may perish; rather,
they must lead them to the shrine of the holy city without losing any.
[8:29] ‘Be watchful’, he says, ‘and guard them untU you weigh them
out before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and the heads of
the families of Israel in Jerusalem and into the treasure chamber of
the house of the Lord’. We weigh out silver and gold and vessels of the
kind we have received from Ezra before the leaders of the priests and
the Levites and the heads of the families of Israel in Jerusalem and in
the treasure chamber of God’s house when, 71375/ by educating and
teaching we show that those whom the heavenly plan has entrusted to

1 Babylon = ‘confusion of sins’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:62.18).

2 On the theme of the Church’s apostolic foundations, cf. Epist. Cath. (229.161-8);
Horn. 2.1 (186.73-74); and De tempi. 2 (228.1402-24).

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131

us are such as may be found blameless and fit for the treasure chamber
of the celestial court, that is, for the abode of inner peace and light -
and, what is more, not in the opinion of ordinary human beings who
could easily be deceived, but by the examination of the blessed apos¬
tles and other sublime men who with the Lord are going to pass
judgement on our deeds. For these people are rightly to be understood
as the rulers of the priests and the Levites and the heads of the fami¬
lies of Israel (i.e. of men or souls who see God),^ about whom the
psalmist says to the Lord: You will appoint them as rulers over all the
earthf and about whom Solomon says in praise of the Church: Noble
in the gates is her husban d, when he shall sit with the elders of the land?
Tn the gates’ means at the sorting out of the Last Judgement.
[8:31-33] So we set out from the River Ahava on the twelfth day of
the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon
us, and delivered us from the hand of the enemy and robbers along
the way. And we came to Jerusalem and rested there for three days.
On the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed
out in the house of the Lord by the hand of Meremoth son of Uriah
the priest, and so on. All this is filled with mysteries. For above we
read that they began to go up from Babylon on the first day of the first
month,"* and now it is said that they moved on from the River Ahava
on the twelfth day of the same month. On the first day of the month,
therefore, they went out of the gates of Babylon, but up until the
twelfth day they were waiting near the aforesaid river until they might
summon the Levites and Nathinnites from the region of Casphia to
join them and more diligently 71400/ entrust themselves to the Lord
by fasting and praying on account of the dangers of the long journey,
as the occasion demanded. We too, then, when we are teaching
peoples new to the Church to renounce the devil and to believe in and
confess the true God,^ it is as though we are going out from Babylon

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:139, 22).

2 Ps. 45:16 (44:17).

3 Prov. 31:23.

4 Cf. Ezra 7:9.

5 On the renunciation of Satan, cf. In Ezr. 1.1061-67 and the accompanying note. In
addition to renouncing the devil, those undergoing baptism had to confess faith in each
person of the Trinity and were immersed three times, once for each confession. These
‘baptismal confessions’ were a formative part of the ceremony from as early as the third
century, and are mentioned in Hippolytus’s Apostolic Tradition.

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BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

at the beginning of the first month with money to be consecrated to
[323] the Lord: for we are showing them the beginning of a new way of life
that leads those who have been freed from the devil to the heavenly
kingdom. This is why in Sacred Scripture this same month is often
called the ‘month of new things’ or the ‘month of new crops’/ for in
this very month too their fathers were led out of Egypt by Moses to
signify this same meaning of a new way of life. But when to these same
hearers of the new life we hand over the creed of the faith/ which was
composed by the twelve apostles and consists of as many statements/
we in a sense stop at the first resting-place for twelve days and only
then continue on the journey to the Promised Land which we have
begun when we show them that the path of the virtues, whereby we
arrive at life, must be entered through accepting knowledge of the
faith. On these days Ezra, together with the descendants of the exiles,
was devoted to fasting and praying and to gathering the Levites and
the Nathinnites, no doubt because it is necessary that when we propose
to bring new peoples to the faith, it is then above all that we ourselves
should pay particular attention to the pursuit of the virtues, so that
thereby we may both entrust ourselves more intimately to the Lord
and also set forth an example of good actions to those whom we are

1 Ex. 12:2,13:3-t, 23:15, 34:18; Deut. 16:1.

2 symbolum fidei tradimus. The Latin noun symbolum (from Greek symbolon,
‘token’) was the customary word for creed, which was meant to act as a sign of faith
in God: see Ferguson 1998b. The ‘handing over of the creed’ (traditio symboli)
mentioned here was a part of the baptismal rite, being one of the catechetical instruc¬
tions required of candidates for baptism: see above In Ezr. 1.1377-86 and the
accompanying note. In the West, the creed used at baptism was the Apostles’ Creed:
see Jungmann 1959: 78-96.

3 The story of the compilation of the Apostles’ Creed is reported by the fourth-
century writer Rufinus, who in telling the story claims to be passing on a view already
deemed traditional by the time he was writing. Rufinus reports that after Christ’s ascen¬
sion, the apostles were enabled by the Holy Spirit to speak different languages so they
could preach to all nations (see Acts 2:1-21). Before separating, they drew up a common
summary of their faith ‘...so that they might not find themselves, widely dispersed as
they might be, delivering divergent messages to the people they were persuading to
believe in Christ’, Commentarius in Symbolum apostolonim (PL 21:335; trans. Kelly
29). Each one of the twelve apostles therefore contributed a clause, out of which the
creed was constructed. The story, though rejected as fantastical by modern scholars,
testifies to an important medieval view which Bede readily accepted, namely that the
‘rule of faith’ professed by the Church was traceable to the apostles: see Kelly 1950:
1-13.

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133

instructing. Let us also call forth a devout company of brothers to
support us, so that with their help we may more effectively transfer
the souls of the faithful to the community of the elect and to the citadel
of a more perfect life, as though we were transferring holy vessels to
the Lord’s temple.

Appropriately, it is also 71425/ added that when those who came up
from Babylon arrived at Jerusalem, they remained there for a period
of three days and only then offered and weighed out in the Lord’s
house the silver and the gold and the vessels which they had brought.
For the three days of tarrying in Jerusalem are the excellent virtues of
faith, hope and love that all the faithful should possess.^ Teachers,
therefore, must first of all manifest these in themselves, and only then
offer those whom they have taught and educated in these same virtues
to the Fathers who have preceded them in Christ for their approval.
For when the Holy Church finds that those whom we are catechizing
are sound in faith and action, it is as if, upon weighing the vessels that
we offer in the temple through the hand of the priests, she discovers
them to be both of pure metal and of perfect weight. This is not only
done in this Church by the elect every day in examining the life of
believers, but, as we said above,^ is also completed more perfectly in
the heavenly Jerusalem in those who have deserved to enter it. For in
this life holy teachers, as though after remaining for three days in
Jerusalem, on the fourth day present to the priests for weighing out
the silver and the gold which they brought as an offering when they
reveal that they themselves are strong in faith, sublime in hope, and
fervent in love, and secondly show that their hearers shine forth like
tested silver through the confession of true faith, that they gleam in
the manner of the best gold through the purity of inviolate under¬
standing, and that they stand out as though they were vessels
consecrated to God through the reception of spiritual gifts in them¬
selves. In the heavenly homeland too, these same teachers, when they
receive a reward first of all for their own faith, hope and love and then
for those whom they have taught, it is as though after the joy 71450/ of
a three-day stay in Jerusalem they are honoured more handsomely for
the gifts and precious vessels worthy of God they have brought.

But there is a difference between these vessels which Ezra and his
priests offer in Jerusalem and those which Zerubbabel and Jeshua are

[324]

1 Cf. 1 Cor. 13:13.

2 Cf. In Ezr. 2.1340-54.

134

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

reported to have presented above3 For those were carried off from
the Lord’s temple to Babylon and later were returned to Jerusalem,
whereas these were made in Babylonia but through an act of devotion
were sent to Jerusalem by the king or princes of the Persians or even
by the people of Israel who were dwelling in these regions. The first
vessels, therefore, stand for those who, after the knowledge and sacra¬
ments of the faith have been received and virtuous works undertaken,
are deceived by the ancient enemy and snatched away into the confu¬
sion of sins but through the compassion of Christ’s grace are called
back to salvation, whereas the second stand for those who were born
subject to death because of the sin of the first transgression but who
are atoned for through the service of priests by the washing of regen¬
eration^ and gathered together as children of the Holy Church. The
earlier vessels suggest those who are repenting for their sins, the later
those who are giving thanks^ for their perseverance in the virtue they
have begun. In this connection, it is well added:

[8:34] And the entire weight was recorded at that time. For the priests
in the temple record the entire weight of the silver and the gold and
the vessels which are offered to the Lord when zealous teachers care¬
fully examine the life of those under them and, in so far as each one
has made progress in faith or action, determine by skilful scrutiny how
they may assign each of them their proper ranks in God’s house
according to the measure of their capacity. But nowadays'^ too, if 71475/
those in authority are lazy and slack and are ignorant of the life of
those entrusted to them or pretend to be ignorant, there is an internal
judge who in the balance of his judgement keeps a full record of the
number of believers and the weight of the soul of each of them, so that
he may reward each according to his work.^ One can also say that when

1 Cf. Ezra 1:7-11, 5:14, 6:5.

2 lavacrum regenerationis: i.e. the sacrament of baptism. Similar terminology is used
at In Ezr. 1.45-46.

3 Reading (with MS R) gratiam agentes for gentes\ see Appendix 1. If gentes is to be
retained, the PL reading is clearly preferable, which has haecperseverantes virtute coepta
gentes insinuant, ‘... the latter suggest those peoples (or Gentiles/pagans) who are perse¬
vering in the virtue they have begun’. Either way, as the preceding sentences make clear,
the contrast Bede is drawing is between believers who have lapsed from the faith and
recent converts to Christianity.

4 The reference to the present (nunc) once again calls to mind the Letter to Bishop
Ecgberht, the central theme of which is the neglectfulness of those in positions of reli¬
gious authority in Bede’s Northumbria.

5 Rom. 2:6.

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135

holy preachers arrive in the heavenly Jerusalem with those whom they
have instructed, at that time the entire weight of their good action is
recorded in the book of life and is given worthy recompense in heaven.

[8:35] But the descendants of the exiles who had come out of the
captivity also offered holocausts to the God of Israel: twelve calves for [ 325 ]
all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs and, as a sin offering,
twelve male goats. All this was a holocaust to the Lord. The great devo¬
tion and religious feeling of those who had come out of the captivity
are shown when, arriving at the Lord’s temple and altar, first of all they
offered holocausts, not only for themselves but also for all Israel (i.e.
both for those who had already returned home and for those who still
remained exiled from their homeland), so that in all things the mercy
of their Creator might protect them all. The spiritual understanding is
also clear, namely that those who by repenting have truly and utterly
escaped the captivity of the ancient enemy in which they were held
fast because of sin are the ones who submit themselves with deter¬
mined purpose to the service of God, and who have removed
themselves from the lowest passions and burn completely with the
flame of heavenly desire for things above. This is what it means to offer
sacrifices and victims of a holocaust (i.e. totally burnt up) to the Lord:
to think of and do nothing else besides his will in all things. /1500/ It is
also an indication of a mind made perfect when one sacrifices victims
for all Israel, i.e. when one supplicates heavenly mercy for the welfare
of all the faithful, as if mindful of the unity and brotherhood in them
all.

[8:36] They delivered the king’s edicts to the lords who were from the
king’s court and to the governors beyond the river, and they raised up
the people and the house of God. Another version has and they made
the people and house of God glorious.^ They raised up the people,

1 Alia editio habet, et clarificaverunt populum et domum Dei. Most Vulgate manu¬
scripts have elevavenmt, ‘they raised up’, though Bede has the comparable form
levaverunt, which agrees with the Codex Amiatinus. Although later (see In Ezr. 2.1759)

Bede uses the term alia editio to refer to Esdras A, the present reference is clearly not
to the latter, which reads honorificaverunt gentem et templum Domini (3 Esd. 8:68).
Moreover, the Old Latin of the Vercelli manuscript has et produxerunt populum et
domum dei... (fol. llOv, col. 1). The reading ‘made glorious’ {clarificaverunt) is closest
to the Septuagint’s edoxasan, ‘glorified’. Denter 1962: 99 takes clarificaverunt as either
a textual improvement or ‘a hearing error’ introduced by a scribe, but its closeness to
the Greek may be a sign that Bede has relied on Jerome’s hexaplaric translation of
Esdras B - if, that is, the text was available to him in the Codex Grandior: see
Introduction, pp. xix-xxi.

136

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

therefore, when through the royal authority that elevated Ezra, they
made the people honourable to all; they also raised up God’s house
by adorning it more reverently with the vessels and gifts that the king
and his counsellors and princes sent to it, and also by rendering its
servants and priests free from tributes or taxes except to the Lord
alone. Mystically, however, the people and temple of God held one
and the same figure of the Holy Church, which Ezra and the descen¬
dants of the exiles raise up after bringing the vessels sacred to God
from Babylon when holy preachers, after gathering new congregations
of believers to it with God’s help, reveal the Church to be venerable
and awe-inspiring to all, even to those who are outside of it. Likewise,
these same preachers, when they carry forward all the way to the
reception of celestial rewards those whom either by their examples or
their words they have instituted in a good way of life, they also raise
up the people and house of God because they assuredly give great joy
to the elect, both to those who are dwelling in the heavenly homeland
and to those still travelling on earth.

[9:1-2] After these things were accomplished, the leaders came to me
[ 326 ] and said, ‘The people of Israel 71525/ and the priests and Levites have
not kept themselves separate from the people of the lands and from
their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites,
Perizzites, Jebnsites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites.
For they have taken some of their danghters for themselves and for
their sons, and have mingled the holy seed with the people of the lands.
And the hand of the leaders and officials has been the first in this
crossing of bonndaries.’^ The crime of this transgression is also plainly
described in the prophet Malachi and is denounced by prophetic
authority.^ For when they had returned from captivity in Babylonia,
not only the leaders and priests and Levites but also the remaining
people cast aside their wives who were of the Israelite race, who were
exhausted and unable to work due to their poverty and the privations
of too long a j ourney and the weakness of their sex, and so their bodies
had become weak and unattractive; and they joined in marriage with
foreigners either because they were flourishing in age, or were more
beautiful because of the care they took of their bodies, or because they
were the daughters of powerful and rich men. These Israelites, it

1 ‘crossing of boundaries’ = in hac transmigratione. This is the reading of the Codex
Amiatinus; most Vulgate MS have in transgressione hac, ‘in this transgression’.

2 Mai. 2:11-12.

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137

should be understood, were not from among those who had come up
with Ezra on that occasion but from those who had long since come
up from captivity with Zerubbabel and Jeshuad For those who had
come up with Ezra could not have come so rapidly to despise the
teaching of such a great guide and leader that, having remained in their
homeland for not even five months, they would have abandoned their
own wives and accepted foreign ones; rather, those leaders must be
understood to have been from the number of those who were anxious
to condemn this crime by reporting to Ezra.

Nor should one be surprised how it is the people of Israel along with
the priests and Levites who are said to have committed this crime,
when the earlier return consisted more of people from Judah and
Benjamin than from /1550/ the ten tribes who were called Israel. ‘For
it should be known that, when Israel (i.e. the ten tribes) was led into
captivity, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were without distinc¬
tion also called by the former name “Israel”’.^ In this verse, therefore,
the people of Israel should not be interpreted as referring to the ten
tribes (as opposed to Judah and Benjamin), but in a general way as
referring to the people of God (as opposed to the people of the
surrounding lands), who polluted the dignity of their heavenly name^
by associating with people of the lands.'* For the same prophet Malachi,
whom the Hebrews declare to be none other than Ezra,^ also mentions

1 Cf. In Ezr. 2.1778-82.

2 Jerome In Malachiam 1.1 (CCSL 76A;903.18-20).

3 Cf. Gen. 32:28. After wrestling all night with an angel, the patriarch Jacob had his
earthly name changed to the heavenly name ‘Israel’ (Heb. ‘he who strives with God’),
thus marking out his people as God’s chosen.

4 Bede appears anxious here that his readers do not misunderstand the significance
of ‘people of Israel’ in this context. In 931 BC, the Israelite monarchy was divided in
two parts, the northern kingdom containing the ten tribes and being called Israel, the
southern containing the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and taking the name Judah.
However, with the destruction of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians, many
northern Jews came southward and, before long, all twelve tribes were called by the
name Israel as a designation for the ‘people of God in general’, in contrast to the non¬
believers of the lands surrounding them: see Wood 1970 and Castel 1985. By contrasting
the people with a ‘heavenly’ name (i.e. the people of God) with those who have an
‘earthly’ name (i.e. the people of the lands), Bede is making a play on words, since in
Latin the word terra can mean both ‘land’ and ‘earth’.

5 Though entitled Malachi, the biblical book of this name is anonymous. The title
derives from the mention in Mai. 3:1 of ‘my messenger’ (Heb. mal’aki). Jewish tradi¬
tion held that the word is merely an epithet for a prophet, and in the Talmud and
Targums that prophet was identified as Ezra: see Cohen 1969:335. Bede probably knew

138

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

this transgression in the book of his prophecy as follows: Judah has
sinned, and a detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem: for Judah has desecrated the holiness of the Lord which he
loved, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. May the Lord cut
off the man who has done this, both the teacher and the disciple, from
the tents of Jacob, even though he brings a gift to the Lord of Hosts. ^
[327] When he says ‘Judah’ here, he clearly means that the people of the
first return had been defiled by this crime. But by adding, May the Lord
cut off the man who has done this, both the teacher and the disciple,
from the tents of Jacob, he showed by the words ‘master’ and ‘disciple’
that both the rulers and the people were polluted by this sin and that
both, if they will not reform, must be rooted out from the fellowship
of the holy. And when he added, even though he brings gifts to the Lord
of Hosts, he warns that those who do not shrink from submitting them¬
selves to the devil by sinning offer victims to the Lord in vain.

In this episode we should admire the faith and excellent resolution
of the people who were freed from captivity, who 71575/ refer to them¬
selves as the holy seed but the other nations in distinction to their own
as the people of the lands, so that they might openly imply that they
themselves, although born from the earth,^ nevertheless have their
dwelling not on earth but in heaven^ insofar as they, more than other
nations, believed in the God of heaven and hoped to obtain heavenly
blessings from him. Thus they rightly grieve that their holiness had
been polluted by the detestable actions of the Gentiles and, what is
worse, they acknowledge that even the leaders by whom they ought
to have been corrected were the first to have gone astray. And it should
be carefully noted and used as an example of good works that while
some leaders sinned and caused the common people who were
entrusted to them to sin, other leaders who were of more wholesome
view for their part do their best to correct those sins; but because they
cannot do this themselves they refer the matter to their pontifex (i.e.

of this tradition of identifying Malachi with the prophet Ezra from Jerome’s commen¬
tary on this book, e.g. In Malachiam Prol. (CCSL 76A:901.15-17): ‘The Hebrews
surmise that Malachi is the priest Ezra, because all that is contained in his book is
mentioned by this prophet... ’ Cf. In Malachiam (CCSL 76A:933.230-7).

1 Mai. 2:11-12.

2 Here again, Bede is playing on the meaning of the Latin terra, which denotes both
‘land’ and ‘earth’.

3 Cf. Phil. 3:20.

BOOK TWO

139

their archbishop)^ through whose authority so grave, so manifold, and
so long-lasting a sin can be expiated. No one can doubt, in fact, that
the foreign wives figuratively stand for the heresies and superstitious
sects of philosophers, which, when they are recklessly admitted into
the Church, often greatly contaminate the holy seed of catholic truth
and pure action with their errors.^ But so long as Christians are not
ashamed to mimic all the sins by which heathens are typically polluted,
it is as if they degenerate through foreign wives from the holy seed of
God’s word in which they were born, as the apostle James says: Of his
own will he has begotten us by the word of truth? And so long as they
follow the allurements of erring men and 71600/ display the sinful
behaviour they have learnt from these for all to see, they are like ones
who create profane offspring from the daughters of foreigners.

[9:3] When I heard this speech, I tore my cloak and tunic, and pulled
hair from my head and beard, and sat down in sorrow. Through the
sombre garb of a mourner Ezra reveals the inmost anguish of his heart.

He tears his clothing, pulls out hair from his head and beard, and sits
down in sorrow in order that by such defilement of his body and
clothing along with the sadness of his face, he may more swiftly rouse [328]
the minds of all to repentance of their own or their brethren’s sin. But
since by clothing it is usually our works that are designated, by which
we are clothed for glory if they prove to be clean, or for death if they
prove to be dirty and not resplendent with nuptial love,'* just so the
hairs of the head represent our thoughts,^ which arise from the hidden

1 pontificem, id est archiepiscopum. On this telling equation of pontifical with
archiepiscopal authority, see above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note, as well as
Introduction, pp. xxxiii-xxxvi and DeOregorio 2004: 18-20. Cf. also In Ezr. 3.1108,
where Ezra is referred to as antistes, another term for a bishop.

2 On Bede’s attitude to the secular philosophical tradition, cf. In Ezr. 1.969-75.

3 Jam. 1:18.

4 nuptiali splendida caritate. The reference is to the parable of the wedding banquet in
Matt. 22:1-14, at which the guest who fails to dress in clothes suitable for a wedding
(nuptialem vestem) is bound hand and foot and cast into the darkness outside. Ambrose,
Augustine, and Gregory wrote that the wedding clothes in this parable symbolize love:
see Ambrose Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam 7.204 (CCSL 14:285.2258-62);
Augustine Contra Donatistas 20.27 (CSEL 53:126.18-28); and Gregory Homiliae in
evangelia 2.38.9 (CCSL 141:368.212-23). Moreover, Bede himself used the phrase
nuptialem caritatis vestem: see Epist. Cath. (203.44); In prou. Sal. 3.31 (156. 323); and
Horn. 1.14 (104.305).

5 Gregory Moralia in Job 2.52.82 (CCSL 143:109.2-3) and Regula pastoralis 2.7 (PL
76:42A); cf. Bede In Cant. 2 (244.25-29) and 5 (325.338-40).

140

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

root of our heart (as though from the internal folds of our brain), and
which should be preserved if they are righteous but cut off if they are
wicked. This is why Samuel’s mother said about her son who would
become holy: And no razor shall come upon his head]^ and the Lord
said to the apostles: And not a hair of your head will perish f no doubt
because all the thoughts of the saints are worthy of eternal remem¬
brance in the eyes of the Lord.^ But for a sinner to be cleansed from
his own iniquities, it is necessary that he cast out from himself
depraved thoughts, which are the source and tinder of evil actions.
Hence in Leviticus when a leper had regained health, among other
rituals of cleansing he was also ordered to shave off even all his own
body hair so that, having thus made atonement, he might deserve to
enter the camp with his offerings,'^ because we are completely cleansed
from the filth of the vices only when we take pains to expel from
ourselves not only actions but also thoughts that are harmful. 71625/
A beard too, which is a sign of male sex and maturity, is customarily
taken to mean virtue.^ The pontifex^ tore his cloak and tunic to signify
that the actions of the people over whom he was ruling were less than
perfect and needed to be torn into pieces through penance and
restored to a better condition. He pulled out the hairs of his head to
suggest to these same people that worthless thoughts should be abol¬
ished from their own heart and a place created for the rebirth of useful
ones; he pulled out hair from his beard too so that it might be made
clear that they should be humbled even with regard to those very
virtues which they seemed to possess and might remember that a virtue
which was obviously mixed with sins counted for little or nothing in
the examination of the internal judge; he sat down in sorrow to teach
that pardon for so great an offence should be earned through the
lamentation of repentance. Nor should we marvel if such great under¬
takings of the good leader instantly bore great fruit of virtue in his
subjects. For consider what follows:

[9:4] And all who feared the word of God concerning this transgres¬
sion of those who had come np from captivity gathered ronnd me. And

1 1 Sam. 1:11.

2 Luke 21:18.

3 Ps. 112:6 (111:7).

4 Cf. Lev. 14:8.

5 Cf. Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos 33.2.4 (CCSL 38:284.20-21).

6 See above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note.

BOOK TWO

141

I sat in sorrow untU the evening sacriflce. Oh how much their attitude
had changed! Above it was said that many followed the wickedness of
their leaders and teachers into licentiousness, but now, once the good
leader had turned to lamentation and indicated through his own grief
and tears what ought to done by those who commit sin, all who feared
God’s word, which threatens that sinners are to be punished, are said [329]
to have gathered around him. Oh how much devout examples aid good
teachers! Ezra said nothing at all, but, having merely heard of 71650/
the crime, it is written that he turned to tears and weeping and drew a
multitude of the faithful around him not by shouting but by lamenting.

It is added:

[9:5-6] And at the evening sacrifice I rose np from my self-abasement
and, having torn my cloak and tnnic, I fell on my knees and spread ont
my hands to the Lord my God and said: ‘Oh my God, I am ashamed
and blush to lift up my face to you, my God’. Ezra had prepared himself
both through compunction of heart and through bodily affliction so
that he might be made worthy to hear heavenly mercy, and only then
did he begin to break forth in words of prayer. He bends his knees,
spreads out his hands, and pours forth prayers to the Lord at the time
of the evening sacrifice, not doubting that this sacrifice which is offered
with a humble spirit and contrite heart^ would be more pleasing to God
than one offered with the flesh or blood of cattle. Typologically,
however, in the fact that with his garment torn he falls on his knees,
spreads out his hands to God and turns the minds of very many to
repentance by pouring out prayers and tears, as is written in what
follows,^ he represents the Lord Saviour, who deigned to pray for our
sins both before and at the very time of his passion, and who allowed
his hands to be stretched out on the cross and the garment of his own
flesh to be torn with wounds and mortified at the appointed time on
behalf of our restoration, so that, as the Apostle says: he who died on
behalf of our sins might rise for our justification? This was aptly done
at the time of evening sacrifice either because the Lord at the end of
the age'* offered the sacrifice of his own flesh and blood to the Lather

1 Cf. Dan. 3:39.

2 Cf. Ezra 10:1.

3 Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:3.

4 in fine saeculi. In Bede’s reckoning, Christ’s incarnation and passion come at the
end of the fifth of the so-called ‘Six World Ages’: cf. above In Ezr. 1.1220-27, and DTR
66 (464.36^0).

142

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

and 71675/ ordered that it should be offered by us in bread and wine;
or because with legal sacrifice coming to an end, he freed us through
his own passion and, separating us from the people of the lands, made
us become heavenly and allowed those who are chaste in heart and
body to adhere to him. This prayer too, in which, though he was right¬
eous, he associated himself with the people who were sinners, saying
[9:6-7] My God, I am too ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you,
My God, because our iniquities are multiplied over our heads and our
sins have grown to the heavens from the days of our forefathers, and
so on until the end of the prayer where it says. Here we are before you
in our sin; no one can stand in your presence because of this,^ is appro¬
priate to the humility of our Redeemer, who appeared in the likeness
[330] of sinful flesh to take away the sins of the world.^ Hence in the Psalms
also (which, as the Gospel attests,^ were written in his own person) he
clearly refers to our sins, which he had taken upon himself, as his own,
saying. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me far from my
salvation? and adding why he says, the words of my sins]^ and again.
Oh God, you know my foolishness, and my sins are not hidden from
you] not because he himself could have sins or foolishness in him, who,
as the Apostle says, has become for us wisdom from God and right¬
eousness and holiness and redemption,^ but because taking upon
himself the cause of those whom he had come to save, he compas¬
sionately deigned to transfer to himself even those things that in reality
were proper to their weakness.

[10:1] WhUe therefore Ezra was thus prayiug aud lameutiug aud
weepiug aud lyiug dowu before the temple of God, a very large
assembly 71700/ of Israel, of meu, womeu, aud cluldreu, gathered
arouud him, aud the people wept with much weepiug. How much
Ezra’s prayer, tears, and sorrow accomplished is shown when it relates
that a very great crowd of weeping people of both sexes and of all ages
immediately gathered around him. They were weeping either because
those who had sinned were doing penance for their sin, or because
those who had remained pure were sorrowing over the transgression

1 Ezra 9:15.

2 Rom. 8:3; John 1:29.

3 Luke 24:44.

4 Ps. 22:1 (21:2).

5 Ps. 69:5 (68:6).

6 1 Cor. 1:30.

BOOK TWO

143

and downfall of their brothers. But whether it was the former or the
latter or both groups who were weeping, all are shown to have been
greatly troubled by the prayers and laments of their pontifex,^ since
even the women and children are said to have been present here as
well. The event can also be understood to have happened in this way,
namely that first those who were innocent and righteous flocked to
Ezra when he says. And all who feared the word of God concerning
this transgression of those who had come np from captivity gathered
ronnd me,^ but now those who had sinned also came to do penance,
together with their wives and children.

[10:2] And Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam
answered and said to Ezra, ‘We have sinned against onr God and have
married foreign wives from the peoples of the land’. Josephus says that
this Shecaniah was the first of the citizens of Jerusalem who himself,
as was proper for a leader, immediately used his great authority to
support Ezra’s plan, both by acknowledging that the people had sinned
as he himself had done and by urging that it was necessary for them to
do penance after casting out their foreign wives along with the chil¬
dren who were born of them.^

[10:2-3] ‘And now,’ he says, ‘if there is repentance in Israel for this,

71725/ let ns make a covenant with onr God and send away all these
wives and those who are born from them. If the people, he says, fully [331 ]
repent for this transgression, first, having turned to the Lord, let us
promise amendment and ask for mercy; and then, having returned to
ourselves, let us remove from us the whole root and stem of the wicked
deed we have committed - namely, by casting out the unlawful wives
along with their progeny. For this is what it means for one truly to do
penance: to be entirely turned to God inwardly in the heart, and
outwardly to cut off all the means of committing sin from its very
source. And by adding,

[10:4] ‘Rise up, it is your part to make a decision, and we wUl be with
you, so take courage and do it’, he very fittingly teaches how one
should consult with superiors, namely that a person should say what
he has understood is best according to his own reason, if he believes
that he has understood well, and yet leave the prerogative of decision¬
making to the person who is qualified to make it and be ready to submit

1 See above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note.

2 Ezra 9:4.

3 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.5.4.

144

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

to all that this person ordains should be done in accordance with the
will and law of God4

[10:6] And Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went away
to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, and entered there. Eliashib
was the high priest at that time. For after Jeshua son of Josedech, his
son Joachim occupied the office of high priest, and Joachim’s son
Eliashib served after him, as both the following part of this sacred
narrative and Josephus’s History of the Jews attest.^

[10:6] He ate no bread and drank no water, for he continued to mourn
over the transgression of those who had come from captivity. Here
71750/ we have^ an exceptional example not only of weeping and
praying but also of fasting on behalf of those who have sinned. And
although those who mourn and weep over their own sins are blessed
because they are comforted by the forgiveness they receive,"^ how
much more blessed should we believe are those who weep even for the
errors of their brethren, so much so that they do not even wish to touch
bread and water (which is the refreshment of the abstinent), or to enter
their own house, or lie down on their own bed^ but rather rejoice to
spend the night praying in the courts of the Lord’s house.® For in that
place there was a priest’s house which Ezra is said to have entered
when evening came. In fact, for ‘the chamber of Jehohanan’ another
edition’ has ‘the pastoforium of Jehohanan’, a name that Scripture
frequently applies to those porticos that surrounded the temple on all
its sides and in which the ministers and stewards of this same temple
were accustomed to dwell.® Moreover, even today people mourn over

1 This passage, monastic in tone, echoes St Benedict's remarks on the abbot's
summoning the brethren for counsel: see Regula Benedicti 3.1-6 (ed. Fry 178-80); and
DeGregorio 2005: 351-54.

2 See Neh. 12:10; and Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.5.5.

3 Reading habemiis for habebunt: see Appendix 1.

4 Cf. Matt. 5:5.

5 Cf. Ps. 132:3 (131:3).

6 Cf. Ps. 134:1 (133:1).

7 alia editio. The reference is to Esdras 3 (the Septuagint’s Esdras A) 9:1: ‘Upon
leaving the court of the temple Ezra went to the priest-chamber (pastoforium) of
Jehohanan son of Eliashib'. Cf. Denter 1962: 99-100. Bede would have had access to
the text of Esdras A in the Codex Grandior: see Introduction, pp. xix-xxi.

8 Bede’s claim that the term pastoforium (or pastophorium) is employed ‘frequently'
in Scripture in connection with porticus is puzzling: the word occurs elsewhere in
Scripture only at 1 Esdras 8:60 and 1 Macc. 4:38 and 4:57, and none of these say anything
about porticus or side-chambers.

BOOK TWO

145

the transgression of those who have come from captivity when they
lament that those who have recently been freed from sins by doing [332]
penance have fallen into them once more by doing wrong, so that they
can be captured again by the devil. The Apostle Peter speaks of their
seducers as though of the parents of unclean wives: For by speaking
proud words of foolishness they seduce into the self-indulgent desires
of the flesh those who have only just escaped from them] and a little
further on concerning those who, coming up as it were from captivity,
are nevertheless enslaved by self-indulgence, he says: For if they escape
the corruptions of the world through knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are entangled again and overcome by them,
and are worse off at the end than they were previously?

[10:7-9] /1775/ And a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem
to all the descendants of the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem, and so
on until it says: Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in
Jerusalem within the three days.^ Since it is the descendants of Judah
and Benjamin who are said to have assembled, it is very clear that those
who were defiled by marrying foreign wives were from the first group
of returnees, who came from those tribes and were recalled home by
Jeshua and Zerubbabel, as we have said above.'^

[10:9] This was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month,
and all the people sat down in the courtyard of the house of God, trem¬
bling because of their sin and the rain. The ninth month is the one
which is called ‘Casleu’ (Chislev) by the Hebrews and ‘December’ by
the Romans. Who does not know that this month comes in the middle
of winter and is rainy and surprisingly stormy? Hence we should note
all the more carefully that when the people assembled in the middle
of winter, it is recorded that they trembled because of their sin and the
rain. For when they noticed that the rains were pouring down more
than was usual even for this wet season, they were brought back to
their conscience and understood that this had happened because of
their sins and that heavenly wrath was imminent. Admonished by this
disturbance of the sky, they grew frightened, and for this reason they
had not dared to carry on their business in their own homes but sat
down in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and put on penitential and

1 2 Pet. 2:18.

2 2 Pet. 2:20.

3 Ezra 10:9.

4 Cf. In Ezr. 2.1539-43.

146

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

humble garb. This was done as a lesson for those who, even when the
elements are stirred up and weather deteriorates into violent winds,
floods of rain, heavy snowstorms, parching drought or even the death
of men and animals, and when the judge himself threatens 71800/ the
force of his anger through open signs, do not at all seek to correct their
behaviour so as to placate that judge and escape the destruction
hanging over them, but instead merely busy themselves to find some
means to avoid or overcome the adverse conditions raging outside on
[333] account of their sins. Now the people sat in the courtyard before the
house of God - that is, around the court of the priests, which
surrounded the Lord’s house on all its sides, as we have taught above.^
It had on all its sides in the shape of a square very spacious courtyard
buildings in which the people also, if there was need because of rain,
could stand and still see what was happening within the temple doors
or around the temple. For at ground level the inner walls were built in
the form of a colonnade, while the outer walls were solid.^

[10:10-11] And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, ‘You have
transgressed and married foreign wives, to add to the sin of Israel. And
now make a confession to the Lord the God of your fathers’, and so
on until it says: So the descendants of the exiles did as was proposed.
And Ezra the priest and the men who were the heads of the families
departed to the house of their fathers,^ and all of them by their names."^
This passage answers the one which is stated above: And Ezra rose up
from before the house of God and went away to the room of
Jehohanan son of Eliashib, and entered there. He ate no bread and
drank no water, for he continued to mourn.^ Here is it worth noting
the devotion of the pontifex^ who while mourning, fasting, and praying
for the people’s transgression remained for three days in the temple
courts and did not want to enter his own house before 71825/ he saw
that the people agreed to repent with a whole heart and turn to the
Lord. The remaining leaders are seen to have shared this devotion as
well, since they too are said to have departed to the house of their

1 See In Ezr. 2.1760-63.

2 Cf. De tempi. 2 (192.36-193.38).

3 in domo patrum suorum: this reading is preserved in the Codex Amiatinus; most
Vulgate manuscripts have in domum patrum suorum.

4 Ezra 10:16.

5 Ezra 10:6.

6 See above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note.

BOOK TWO

147

fathers when the assembly ended. For if the writer of sacred history
did not want to indicate this by this sentence, what need was there to
write that when the conversation ended Ezra and the heads of the
families departed to the house of their fathers when they left the
precincts of the temple, since anyone would know that they would do
this even if Scripture did not say so? And what need was there to add
and ail of them by their names, since this too would have been very
well known to everyone, unless it was because he wished it to be under¬
stood that these were the sort of men whose names and deeds are
deservedly held in remembrance and passed on to be known by
posterity?

[10:16-17] And they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to
investigate the matter, and they finished dealing with all the men who
had married foreign wives by the first day of the first month. Observe
that the number three is very often used in mystical figures. It was said
above^ that in three days all the descendants of the exiles should come
to Jerusalem, and now it is said that in three months (namely the tenth,
eleventh, and twelfth months)^ they are purified from the foreign [334]
wives. For there are three virtues without which we cannot arrive at
life - faith, hope, and love;^ and coming into the world in the third era,
the Lord brought us the grace of the Gospel. For the first era came
with the patriarchs before the Law, the second with the prophets under
the Law; in the third, he himself came with grace because, redeeming
us through his passion, he arose from the dead on the third day. 71850/
Because through his grace we are both joined in the fellowship of the
Holy Church and are cleansed from the crime of our sins, it is fitting

1 Cf. Ezra 10:8.

2 The first of the tenth month to the first month of the following year really equals
a period of four months (Tebeth, Shebat, Adar, Nisan). Yet Bede counts only three -
Tebeth, Shebat, and Adar, ignoring Nisan - since it suits his argument to discover the
number ‘three’ in this passage.

3 Cf. 1 Cor. 13:13.

4 Cf. Bede In Sam. 2 (83.634-38) and DTR 64 (456.27-30). The division of the
Christian life into four eras (tempora) - before the law, under the law, under grace, in
peace - derives from Augustine and appears in many of his works: see esp. De diversis
quaestionibiis 66 (CCSL 44A:154.88-155.105), and Enchiridion 31 (CCSL
46:112.23-113.54); also Isidore Etymologiae 6.17.16. Note that Bede does not mention
the fourth age, in pace. His exegesis in this passage is thus closer to Gregory Homiliae
in evangelia 2.31.3 (CCSL 141:270.29-271.41) which, in similarly discussing the allegor¬
ical significance of the number three, applies the three-fold schema that Bede uses here.
Cf. In Ezr. 1.1204-27, where Bede explains the analogous doctrine of the Six World

148

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

that the descendants of the exiles not only met in Jerusalem for three
days to be corrected from their errors but also completed the task of
being purified in three months. But according to the literal meaning,
it was appropriate enough and beneficial that the heads of the fami¬
lies and the Levites should take pains to ensure that all who had been
stained by profane marriage were dealt with (i.e. were cleansed from
such wickedness) before the beginning of the first month so that they
might be pure when they entered that very first month in which
Passover was to be held, pure when they carried out the Paschal cele¬
bration, and pure when they ended the year which they began pure. It
is appropriate that we too do the same every year on the first Sunday
of Lent, so that as the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection
approaches we may cleanse ourselves from all iniquity of the flesh and
spirih so that we ourselves too might be able to share in his resurrec¬
tion.

[10:18] And among the descendants of the priests who had married
foreign wives there were fonnd: of the sons of Jeshna son of Jozadak,
and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah. The

Hebrews relate to this passage the words of the prophet Zechariah:
And the Lord showed meJeshiia (Jesus) the high priest standing before
the angel of the Lord, and Satan was standing at his right side to accuse
himf and a little further on: And Jeshua was dressed in filthy clothes,
and he stood before the angel; and the angel responded and said to those
who were standing before him, saying, ‘Take away his filthy clothes’.
And he said to him, ‘See, I have taken away your sin, and have put new
garmen ts on you Then he said, ‘Put a clean cidaris on 71875/ his head’.^
It is appropriate that they say, Satan was standing at his right side and
on his left to accuse him, for the accusation was true because he too
had taken a foreign wife as had the others. Now the words Jeshua was
dressed in filthy clothes can be interpreted in three ways: they were
filthy either because of illicit marriage, or because of the sins of the
people, or because of the impurity of the captivity. The angel before
whom Jeshua was standing commanded the rest of the angels on the
Lord’s behalf to take away his filthy clothes about which we have
[335] spoken, and when they had fulfilled this command by doing so, the
same angel speaks to Jeshua again, saying: See, I have taken away your

1 2 Cor. 7:1.

2 Zech. 3:1.

3 Zech. 3:3-5.

BOOK TWO

149

sin, that is to say, his filthy garments, and I have put new garments on
you, which means T have joined you to an Israelite wife’. And
concerning what follows. Put a clean cidaris on his head, ‘many people
call this a “mitre”, intending by it that the dignity of the priesthood be
understood, because once the filth of his sins has been washed away,
he must keep the priesthood pure’.^

But one should observe that Ezra does not write that Jeshua himself
had married a foreign woman but says that some of his sons and
brothers had been defiled by this sin, although the fault of sons reflects
upon the father and he cannot be completely righteous who has
neglected to correct wrongdoers when given the opportunity. Thus
some say that the aforesaid prophecy about Jeshua should be related
not to the son of Jozadak but to the Lord Saviour, who although he is
the radiance of the glory and the figure of the substance of God,^ took
on filthy clothes as the occasion demanded through compassion for
our weakness, as Isaiah says: But he was wounded for our iniquities
and was weakened for /1900/ our sins? Satan was standing at his right
side to accuse him,* seeking always to go against his right side and the
virtues, as the sacred history of the Gospel relates; and the Apostle
says: he is in all things just as we are, except without sin? His filthy
clothes are removed and he puts on fresh ones when he has washed us
from our sins with his own blood,^ in order that what the Apostle says
should happen: For all of you who were baptized in Christ have clothed
yourselves in Christ? Or he had filthy clothes in his passion and
received new garments in his resurrection so that we can truly say
about him that although we once knew Ch rist according to the flesh, we
now do so no longer? He received a cidaris on his head as well because
he has been found worthy to hold the eternal priesthood, in keeping
with the psalmist’s saying: You are a priest forever? But the fact that
Ezra says the brothers of Jeshua son of Jozadak also had married
foreign wives properly applies, however, not to his brothers in the flesh

1 Jerome In Zachariam 1.3 (CCSL 76A:771.54); cf. Isidore Etymologiae 19.30.6.

2 Heb. 1:3.

3 Is. 53:5.

4 Zech. 3:1.

5 Heb. 4:15.

6 Rev. 1:5.

7 Gal. 3:27.

8 2 Cor. 5:16.

9 Ps. 110:4 (109:4).

150

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

but to his kindred after the customary manner of Holy Scripture. For
his actual brothers were no longer living or able to devote themselves
to pleasure, since one hundred or more years had passed from the time
when Cyrus began to rule and sent back Zerubbabel and Jeshua with
the migration from Judah and Babylon to rebuild the house of the
Lord in Jerusalem. It goes on:

[10:19] And they gave their hands [in pledge] to pnt away their wives,
and to offer a ram from the flock for their sin, and so on until the list
of penitents ends and it says: All these had married foreign wives, and
[336] there were among them women who had borne children.^ First they
put away the unlawful wives and only then 71925/ do they offer a ram
on their own behalf so that, cleansed from the crime, they might
approach the altar in a state of purity. For it is difficult for a person’s
offering to be acceptable to God if he does not first strive to abandon
the misdeed for which he offers it, as Isaiah says: Cease to act
perversely, learn to do well? And because they, who were the first to
sin, were the descendants or brothers of the high priest, it is right that
they offer a ram from their flock as punishment for their crime in order
that by such a victim they might indicate that they themselves who
were seen to be the teachers and rulers of the people, as it were the
leaders of a flock of followers, had arranged to sacrifice themselves
with respect to their former way of life and, purged by appropriate
penance, to offer themselves to God through a better way of life.

Meanwhile, it should be noted with what great art of warfare the
devil constantly assails the faithful and how he never leaves them any
time secure from battle. For consider how those who could not be
overcome by misfortunes were overcome by enticements; they
conquered their public enemies when the Lord’s temple was built and
dedicated but were conquered by a desire for Gentile women, so that
they did not keep the temples of their own hearts and bodies worthy
for God to inhabit. Very clearly there is a complete allegorical inter¬
pretation of this for our own times. For we see that the minds of the
faithful are tempted inwardly with much greater danger now when
they are seduced and enticed by their own lust^ than they were previ¬
ously tempted outwardly when their brutal opponent was raging

1 Ezra 10:44.

2 Is. 1:16-17.

3 Cf. Jam. 1:14.

BOOK TWO

151

against their constancy by sword and fire. But the mercy of the Lord
will be present, so that just as it then endowed those people with the
virtue of patience against the open battles of those who raged against
them, in the same way it may also give us the protection of caution
against the snares of enticements that catch us unawares. Accordingly,
when 71950/ the pontifex^ and all those who feared the Lord acted zeal¬
ously, those who had sinned were pricked in the heart,^ and they cast
out their foreign wives. Once they expelled the baseness of self-indul¬
gence, the beauty of chasteness returned; once they cast out the debris
of the vices, the flowers and spices of the virtues were strewn in the
Lord’s city. The words of Ezra, in which he described first the deeds
of Zerubbabel and Jeshua and then his own deeds, end here.

Now Ezra himself was clearly a type of the Lord Saviour too, inas¬
much as he restored sacred Scripture, recalled the people out from
captivity to Jerusalem, enriched the Lord’s house with greater gifts,
appointed leaders and guardians beyond the River Euphrates who
were familiar with God’s Law, and purified the descendants of the
exiles from their foreign wives. For the Lord restored Sacred
Scripture, because when the scribes and Pharisees either had defiled
it by their traditions or taught that it should be understood according
to the letter alone, he showed it was full of spiritual meaning, according [337]
as to whether it was written by Moses or by the prophets; and by
sending the Holy Spirit upon them he also caused the New Testament
to be written down by apostles and apostolic men. He led the people
out from captivity in Babylonia and brought them now liberated to
Jerusalem and the Promised Land, not only because by suffering on
that one occasion on the cross he redeemed the world through his own
blood, and descending into Hell he rescued all true Israelites (i.e. the
elect) he found there and, leading them to the walls of the heavenly
city, granted them the joys of inheritance they had once been prom¬
ised; but also because daily /1975/ gathering the faithful from the
turmoil of this world, he calls them together to the fellowship of the
Holy Church and the eternal kingdom. He increased the riches of the
temple with gold and silver and precious vessels which either the
people of Israel or rulers of the Persians had sent there through him,
because by bringing those who believe in him from both peoples (i.e.

1 See above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note.

2 Acts 2:37.

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Jews and Gentiles) into the Church, he does not cease to adorn and
glorify her always through the splendour of their faith and good works.
He appointed leaders and guardians for all the people beyond the river
who knew and taught God’s Law because in the Holy Church, which
not only has been cleansed in the river of sacred baptism but also by
the sincerity of its faith has transcended the Babylonian river (that is,
the turmoil of this changing world), he placed apostles, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers.^ He purified the descendants of the exiles from
their foreign wives because he forbade that those who by professing
the faith had renounced the world should be enslaved any more to the
enticements of the world. He also cast out the children of these
mothers from the assembly of the returned exiles in case by chance
when they grew up they might follow the perfidy of their mothers
rather than the faith of their fathers, because he taught that even those
of our works that seem good to men are spurious^ if they are mixed
with carnal pleasures or originate from the contagion of human favour,
and so are not worthy of the fellowship of those who, completely
renouncing the world with their whole mind, move on to the things of
heaven and who rejoice not to be weakened by temporal enticements
but on the contrary to be made stronger through adversities and to be
prepared by them for their heavenly rest.

But if anyone wishes to object that it is not written that they cast
out the sons of the adulterers but only the women, even though above
when Shecaniah suggests /2000/, Let us make a covenant with our God
and send away all these wives and those who are born from them,^ it
is immediately added. So Ezra rose up and made the leaders of the
priests and Levites and all Israel swear to do according to this word,
and they swore,'* let him understand that if the descendants of the
exiles did not throw out the children that the foreign wives had borne
[338] to them, this was because they taught the children to renounce the
unfaithfulness of their mothers, and because being consecrated to the
Lord through circumcision and the saving offering, they made them
sharers of their own faith and purity. Assuredly, it is clear that the
mystery of this is easy to understand, namely that the good works that
we do with a view to temporal welfare or favour or pleasure should

1 Cf. Eph. 4:11.

2 Reading reproba esse for reprobasse: see Appendix 1.

3 Ezra 10:3.

4 Ezra 10:5.

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153

either be reckoned among bad works or be separated from base aspi¬
ration and done for the sake of heavenly reward alone. For he, for
instance, who fasts, prays, and gives alms with the aspiration of being
seen and praised by men is no doubt born such a child of good works
as he would be if he were born from the unclean mother of a polluting
conscience, and can have no part in the assembly of the exiles who
came up from Babylon to Jerusalem, doubtless because righteousness
- or rather the pretence of righteousness - which has received its own
reward in the present, will be deprived of future reward in heaven.^
But if the author of such work, turning his mind to better things, begins
to do for the sake of heavenly reward what he used to do for the sake
of a desire for vain praise, he is like one who consecrates to the Lord
his progeny that has been brought forth, even though in an unworthy
way, and makes him a Jerusalemite citizen, because 72025/ when he
corrects a badly begun work in time, he renders it worthy of perpetual
reward in heaven.

1 Bede evidently has in mind Matt. 6:1-18, with its three sections on almsgiving,
prayer, and fasting and rebuke of religious ostentation.

BOOK THREE

[339] [Neh. 1:1-2] The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. And it came to
pass in the month of Chesleu [Chislev] in the twentieth year, while I
was in the fortress of Snsa, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came,
together with some other men of Jndah, and I questioned them about
the Jews that had remained and survived from the capture of
Jerusalem. Nehemiah is interpreted in Latin as ‘My consoler is the
Lord’ or as ‘the consoler from the Lord’d For when Nehemiah restored
Jerusalem’s walls and, after delivering them from the disdain of their
enemies, raised up the people of God to the observance of the divine
law, it is surely clear that by his word and deed and person he not
unsuitably designates the mediator of God and men, the man Christ
Jesus,^ who indicates that he was sent to console the poor in spirit when
he said to his disciples as he was about to ascend to heaven: I will ask
the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete,^ i.e. a Consoler, by
whom the psalmist showed that God’s holy city (namely the Church)
would be rebuilt and also that those who mourn would be consoled
when he said: The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of
Israel. Fie heals the broken-hearted]^ and so on. The figure of Nehemiah
also is suitable for holy preachers, through whose teaching heavenly
consolation is revealed to us as they promise the hope of mercy and
divine propitiation to the penitent after a lapse into sin, as though they
were restoring the fortifications and walls of Jerusalem after they have
been demolished by the enemies. Now this month of Chesleu is the
one we call December; among the Hebrews it is the ninth month.

1 Jerome Epistula 53 (CSEL 54:461.19-20). The Hebrew name rfhemyah is
composed of two elements, nhm ‘comfort’ + yh,a shorted form of Yahweh: see Brown-
Driver-Briggs 1996: 637. It is not clear, however, why Jerome took the name to mean
consolator a domino rather than consolatio a domino, which is closer to the Hebrew
meaning.

2 Cf. 1 Tim. 2:5.

3 John 14:16.

4 Ps. 147:2-3 (146:2-3).

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among us the last month of the year.^ The name of this month, which
in Latin is interpreted as ‘his hope’,^ 725/ is clearly very appropriate to
the solemn pledge of one who directed his mind to erecting the ruins
of the holy city. For the principal foundation of good action is that we
have confident hope in the Lord’s help to fulfil what we desire. This is
the very month in which our Lord was born in the flesh, most beauti¬
fully prefiguring to us long before by its own name that in this month
the true Nehemiah (i.e. the consoler from God the Father), long hoped
for by the elect, was to come into the world to build up the Holy
Church.

Nehemiah writes that he was in the fortress of Susa when the men
came who brought the news about Jerusalem. Susa is the capital city
of the kingdom of the Persians, as we read in the Book of Esther.^ Not
only Nehemiah but also the prophet Daniel calls it a ‘fortress’, ‘not
because the city itself is a fortress, for as we have stated it is a capital
city and a very powerful one, but because it is so solidly built that it
looks like a fortress’.'* Now Susa means ‘riding’ or ‘returning’.^ The [340]
name aptly befits the defences of the mind of the faithful, especially
of those who are charged with the capture of Jerusalem, that is, for the
salvation of those who are occasionally snatched away from the
Church through the devil’s attacks but by repenting are brought back
to the Church again by the grace of God. For such people are in a
returning fortress - that is, in the strength of a mind called back from
the lowest delights to a longing for the heavenly homeland, from which
they had fallen in their first parent; such people are in the very strong
cavalry of the hearts of the saints who carry God as their rider,
according to the prophet’s saying: Mounting your horses, and your
riding is salvation] For the Lord indeed mounts 750/ his horses when

1 Cf. Bede DTR 36 (396.18-20): ‘The Hebrews begin both these years [lunar and
solar] at the commencement of the Paschal month, but amongst the Romans they have
their beginning and end with the lunation that begins with the month of January’ (trans.
Wallis 103).

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:125.31).

3 Esth. 1:2. The ancient city of Susa (in south-western Iran) was the winter residence
of the kings of the Persians: see Myers 1965: 93.

4 Jerome In Danielem 2.8.2 (CCSL 75 A:851.770-73). Cf. Dan. 8:2.

5 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:130.20).

6 Hab. 3:8. Bede wrote a commentary on the canticle of Habakkuk: for his comments
on this verse, see In Hab. (393.350-394.360).

156

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

he illuminates the hearts of preachers with the grace of his mercy so
that he can rule them; and his riding is salvation because he not only
carries to eternal salvation those over whom he presides by ruling
them, but also, so that he may likewise preside over them too, through
them makes others sharers of this same everlasting salvation as well.
Let us therefore see what follows when Nehemiah questioned them
about those who had remained after the capture of Jerusalem.

[Neh. 1:3] And they said to me, ‘Those who had remained and were
left behind at the time of the captnre there in the province are in great
distress and disgrace; and the wail of Jernsalem is broken down, and
its gates have been destroyed by fire’. The literal meaning is evident,
namely that those who had remained after the capture, even though
they seemed to be living at peace in view of the fact that the king of
the Persians had shown himself to be their friend, and not long previ¬
ously had sent to them Ezra the scribe with letters in order that he
should have authority over all the region beyond the river,^ nonethe¬
less they were in great distress because their enemies blamed^ them
that the holy city still remained in ruins.^ But even now in the Holy
Church people are rightly afflicted and pricked by a salutary sense of
remorse when, even though they themselves have repented of their
past wrongdoings, they consider the fact that their neighbours still are
subject to sins, so that, through the negligence of those who, having
reformed, could have been profitable to many, the devil has free entry
into the Church, as through the walls of the ruined city. It is even more
lamentable if those very ones who should have been profiting others
through their teaching and personal example show to observers an

1 Cf. Ezra 7:25, where authority is conferred upon Ezra to appoint judges and magis¬
trates to judge ‘all the people who are beyond the river’.

2 exprobrarent. This word does not make sense in the present context. In Ezra 4:7-16,
Rehum and others write a letter to Artaxerxes complaining that the Jews are rebuilding
Jerusalem; but their grievance was not that the city was still in ruins, but that the Jews
were trying to rebuild it. It is possible, therefore, that the word is a corruption of expro-
brare. in which case the sentence should read, ‘because their enemies were blaming them
and because the holy city still remained in ruins’. This would make perfect sense: cf.
below In Ezr. 3.108-10.

3 Despite attempts to rebuild them (see Ezra 4:6-23), Jerusalem’s walls, which had
been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC, remained in ruins until the 20th year of
Artaxerxes (according to Neh. 2:1), i.e. 445, which would be approximately 142 years.

BOOK THREE

157

example of destruction in themselves by living corruptlyd For this is
what is meant by the fact that the gates of Jerusalem 1151 were burned
down by enemy flames: that those who ought, by living and teaching
well, to have been introducing worthy people into the assembly of the
elect and keeping unworthy people out, perish instead in the fire of
avarice, self-indulgence, pride, strife, envy, and the rest of the vices
that the evil enemy is wont to bring in. But what seems to happen or [341 ]
what action we should take with regard to these sins is shown when it
immediately adds:

[Neh. 1:4-6] And when I heard words of this sort, I sat down and wept,
and monrned for several days; and I began to fast and pray before the
God of heaven, and I said: T ask you Oh Lord, God of heaven, strong,
great and terrible, who keep your covenant and mercy with those who
love you and obey your commands, let your ear be attentive and your
eyes open to see the prayer of your servant, and so on until the end of
this prayer when it says: ‘And guide your servant today, and grant him
mercy before this man’.^ For if a holy man, hearing that the buildings
of stone and wood had been destroyed, rightly mourned, fasted and
prayed and did this for a long time while sitting in sadness, how much
more ought we to persist with continual laments, tears and prayers
over the destruction and ruination of souls which is caused by sin? In
this way those who, when the enemy was triumphing, wallowed for a
long time in the filth and squalor of sins to the shame of their religion,
may, by the Lord’s mercy, be elevated once more to their former state
of health.

[Neh. 2:1] And it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the twentieth
year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, and I took the
wine and gave it to the king, and I was sad in his presence. Nisan is the
first month of the year, 7100/ according to the Hebrews, in which they
were wont always to celebrate Passover; this month we call April.
Therefore, from what he said above, namely that he mourned, fasted,
and prayed for many days, it is unquestionably evident that for four
successive months (namely the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth) he

1 This censure of corrupt teachers echoes Bede’s Letter to Bishop Ecgberht, which
likewise emphasizes the necessity to teach by example as well as by word: see esp. Epist.
Ecg. 6-8 (409-11). On the parallels between this commentary and the Letter, see the
Introduction, pp. xxxi-xxxiii and DeGregorio 2004: 6-20.

2 Neh. 2:11.

158

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

gave attention to that most sacred devotion, waiting for an opportune
moment in which he could tell his desire to the king. What is more, he
was the chief butler;^ he used to offer the cup to the king and outwardly
perform a joyful service, but inwardly was overcome by a grave
sadness because he remembered that the holy city had been destroyed
and that the people of God were held in disgrace and contempt by the
enemies of God. Hence with those like him he bears witness, saying
in a psalm: By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and wept when
we remembered you, Oh Zion?

[Neh. 2:2] And the king said to me, ‘Why is your face sad when I see
that you are not iU? This is not without reason, but some evil, I know
not what, is in your heart.’ And I became very much afraid, and so on

until the king agrees that Jerusalem be rebuilt and he gives Nehemiah
letters for the governors of the region beyond the river and it is said:

[342] And the king granted my requests according to the gracious hand of
my God with me. And I went to the governors of the region beyond
the river and gave them the king’s letters.^ We have plainly learned
from the teaching of Isaiah how Cyrus, the first king of the Persians,
holds a figure of the Lord Saviour because he ended the captivity of
the people of God and decreed that the temple be restored.So too,
we can properly take the successor of this same empire, Artaxerxes,
who with the same devotion ordered that the city of Jerusalem be
rebuilt, 7125/ as a type of the Lord, who builds a city for himself from
living stones (that is, the one Church made from all the elect) through
the service of preachers. Thus it is appropriate that the name
Artaxerxes means ‘a light that tests silently’.^ For the Lord is indeed
the light of life who tests the hearts of his faithful silently, at times illu¬
minating them with the sweetness of celestial grace, at others clouding
them with the burdens of this life, so that, instructed by temporal

1 princeps vinarius. The Vulgate has pincerna regis, ‘the king’s cupbearer’ (Neh.
1:11). Bede may be offering vinarius as a gloss on pincerna, though in his earlier work
The Reckoning of Time, he uses pincerna regis in reference to Nehemiah - DTR 9
(306.31). The office of royal cupbearer was one of the oldest and highest positions in
the Babylonian court. Every royal residence had a cupbearer, who served both as
selector and taster of the king’s wine and as guardian of the royal apartment: see
Bowman and Gilkey 1954: 670-71; and Williamson 1985:174.

2Ps. 137:1 (136:1).

3 Neh. 2:8-9.

4 Cf. Is. 44:28, and above. In Ezr. 1.148-214.

5 Cf. Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:129.3).

BOOK THREE

159

adversities, they might desire eternal goods more ardently.

This year, in which Jerusalem was allowed to be rebuilt, is a memo¬
rable one, and it was prefigured long before in the mystical writings of
the prophet Daniel, when the angel said to him that seventy weeks were
‘shortened’ on his people and on his holy city,^ and a little further on:
From the going forth of the word that a response should be given and
Jerusalem built until Christ the Prince, there will be seven weeks and
sixty-two weeks, and a little further on: Fie shall confirm a covenant
with many for one week; and for half of the week the victim and the
sacrifice will cease J These weeks, therefore, commence from the twen¬
tieth year of Artaxerxes, when he gave permission for the rebuilding
of Jerusalem, at which time, as Julius Africanus writes,^ 115 years of
Persian rule'* had elapsed and just as many years remained unfulfilled
to the time of Alexander the Great, when he killed Darius; but it was
the 185th year following the capture of Jerusalem, and they extend up
to the time of the Lord’s passion, through which an end was imposed
on offerings and legal sacrifices. Each week represents seven years,
7150/ making a total of 490 years according to the moon’s course,
provided that each year contains, in a novel and unusual way, no more
than twelve lunar months. For this reason the angel intentionally says
that the seventy weeks, which make 475 solar years, were not

1 Dan. 9:24.

2 Dan. 9:25, 27. Bede provides fuller accounts of the so-called ‘seventy prophetic
weeks’ mDTR9 (304.1-310.113 and 66 (486.713-33). These weeks, revealed in a vision
to the prophet Daniel (see Dan. 9), are said to refer to the period of years spanning the
rebuilding of Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah until the birth of Christ, i.e. the so-
called Fifth World-Age (cf. In Ezr. 1.1220-25, on the Six World-Ages), for which, as
Wallis notes (p. 279), they provide the only firm dating framework. Each of these weeks
represents a seven-year period, the first seven weeks denoting the 49-year period during
which Ezra and Nehemiah worked to rebuild Jerusalem, which is why Bede alludes to
these prophetic weeks at this point in the commentary.

3 Julius Africanus Chronographiai 5 (PG 10:80B-84B). Actually, Bede’s immediate
source here is Jerome’s In Danielem 3.9.24 (CCSL 75A:866.158-889.617), which he
follows closely. In discussing the seventy prophetic weeks, Jerome quotes at length ‘the
opinions of the great teachers of the Church’; the list of authorities cited includes Julius
Africanus first - from whom Jerome quotes an extensive passage on the seventy weeks
which Bede in turn draws from here - and then Eusebius Pamphili, Hippolytus,
Apollinarius of Laodicea, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, and unnamed Hebrew author¬
ities.

4 In DTR 9 (307.42), Bede counts 116 years of Persian rule. The actual total is 115
years and 9 months, and the discrepancy may be explained by his rounding that number
up in The Reckoning of Time, but rounding it down in On Ezra and Nehemiah.

160

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[343] ‘numbered’ but ‘shortened’ on his peopled In The Reckoning of Time
I have undertaken to discuss the prophet’s whole meaning in full, as
best I couldd

[Neh. 2:10] And Sanaballat the Horonite^ and Tobiah the Ammonite
officiaE heard abont this, and they were saddened and greatly
distressed that a man had come to seek the prosperity of the children
of Israel. Heretics and all enemies of the Church are also saddened
whenever they notice the elect labouring for the catholic faith or the
correction of morality so that the walls of the Church may be rebuilt.
Note how different their mood and situation was now from what it had
been earlier, because above it was said that those who had remained
from the captivity in Judea were in great distress and disgrace,^ and
that Nehemiah also conducted a prolonged fast with weeping and
prayers because the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed and its
gates burned down by fire. But now, by contrast, the enemies of this
same holy city were saddened and became greatly distressed because

1 Bede’s comment on this distinction in The Reckoning of Time is helpful: ‘But note
that he claims that these weeks are not simply “observed” or “calculated” but “dimin¬
ished”; that is, he covertly impresses upon the reader that he should understand that
the years indicated are shorter than usual’ - DTR 9 (306.23-27), trans. Wallis 306. In
short. Bede is arguing that the years referred to here are lunar, the lunar year being 11
days shorter than the solar.

2 See Bede DTR 9 (309.102-310.113). This allusion to The Reckoning of Time (c.
725), one of the few explicit cross-references in Bede’s oeuvre, has long been consid¬
ered our firmest clue for dating On Ezra and Nehemiah. the issue is discussed in the
Introduction, pp. xli-xlii.

3 Sanballat was one of the local governors under the Persians who opposed
Nehemiah’s rebuilding efforts. His name, of Babylonian origin, means ‘Sin has given
life’, while the epithet ‘Horonite’ probably identifies his coming either from the city of
Horonaim in Moab or from upper or lower Beth-Horon: see Brockington 1969:129 and
Yamauchi 1988: 687.

4 Tobiah, whose name means ‘Yahweh is good’ (cf. In Ezr. 3.702-03), was the
governor of the region of Ammon under the Persians. It is unclear whether he was actu¬
ally an Ammonite, i.e. one of the peoples forbidden from association with the Jewish
community (see Deut. 23:3), or whether the epithet ‘Ammonite’ was either a derisive
nickname or a title associated with his position as governor of Ammon. In any case, like
Sanballat, he appears throughout Book 3 as an adversary of Nehemiah: cf. In Ezr.
3.696-702,1955-62. The designation ‘official’ (Lat. serviis; Heb. hbed) literally means
‘servant’ or ‘slave’, though in biblical texts the term is often used of high officials (e.g.
2 Kings 22:12; Jer. 36;24), and is so translated in the NIV; see Brockington 1969; 129-30
and Yamauchi 1988; 687.

5 Cf. Neh. 1;3.

BOOK THREE

161

they realized that its buildings were about to be restored and at the
same time that the citizens would be delivered from the insults of their
enemies. Hence we should recollect that, even in this life, that saying
of the Lord can be fulfilled in which he said. Amen Amen, I say unto
you, that you will weep and mourn but the world will rejoice. /175/ You
will grieve, he adds at once, but your grief will be turned into joy.^ For
surely, as the world which used to rejoice weeps, the sadness of the just
will be turned into joy when it is learnt that the affairs of the Holy
Church are prospering and those who by sinning have gone astray are
returning to her by doing penance.

[Neh. 2:11-13] And I came to Jerusalem and remained there three
days. And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; and I told no
one what God had put into my heart to do in Jerusalem; and there was
no animal with me but the one on which I rode. And I went out at night
by the Valley Gate, and so on until it says: And I inspected the wall;
and I turned back and came to the Valley Gate, and went back in.^ He
wanders around inspecting the various parts of the devastated city and
examines carefully in his mind how each of these should be repaired.
Similarly, it is fitting for spiritual teachers also to get up regularly at
night and inspect with careful scrutiny the state of the Holy Church
while others are resting, so that they might vigilantly investigate how
they might repair and rebuild through chastening those things which
have been defiled or destroyed in it by the warfare of sins.^ Jerusalem’s
wall lies in ruins, and the way of life of the faithful is soiled by earthly
and base desires. The gates are consumed by fire when, as a result of
their abandoning instruction in the truth, even those who ought to
have been opening up the entrance of life to others also by teaching
them now grow idle with the same laziness as everyone else and [344]
become slaves to temporal concerns.

[Neh. 2:17-18] And I said to them, ‘You know the distress we are in,
because Jerusalem is deserted and its gates have been burned by fire.

Come, and let us build the wall of Jerusalem’, and so on until 7200/ it
says: And their hands were strengthened for the good work. These
words are plain and exceedingly adaptable to a spiritual meaning
because holy teachers - indeed, all who burn with zeal for God - are

1 John 16:20.

2 Neh. 2:15.

3 Since only monks were expected to arise at night to attend the Night Office, the
‘spiritual teachers’ mentioned here presumably are monastics like Bede himself.

162

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

in the greatest distress as long as they discern that Jerusalem (that is,
the ‘vision of peace’^ which the Lord has bequeathed and commended
to us) lies deserted due to wars of disagreements, and they behold that
the gates of the virtues (which, according to Isaiah, ‘praise’ should
occupy)^ have been destroyed and subjected to insults while the gates
of hell prevail. Hence they work hard to unite the ministers of the word
in a single purpose so that those buildings of faith and good action
which seemed to have been destroyed can rise again.

[Neh. 3:1] Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the
priests and they built the Sheep Gate.^ This Eliashib was the high priest
at the time. He was the son of Joiakim, who, after his own father,
Jeshua the high priest son of Jozadak, himself bore the insignia of the
priesthood for a long time. And it was right that the restoration of the
city was begun by a high priest and his brothers, in order that those
who were highest in rank might themselves in their good works
become an example for all. And it is well that, as the priests are
building, it adds:

[Neh. 3:1] And as far as the Tower of One Hundred Cubits they sanc¬
tified it, as far as the Tower of Hananel. For priests build to the number
of one hundred cubits'* when they enflame all those whom they are
instructing with love and desire for eternal things. For the number one
hundred, which in counting on the fingers moves from the left hand to
the right,^ represents celestial rewards, which, in comparison with

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10).

2 Is. 60:18.

3 The order of gates mentioned by Nehemiah goes round the city in a counter-clock¬
wise direction. However, scholars disagree whether Nehemiah rebuilt the walls round
the whole city, or merely round the eastern part (i.e. the Temple Mount and the City of
David): for discussion see Simons 1952: 437-58 and Williamson 1984: 81-88. Bede is
correct in placing the Sheep Gate on the north side of the Temple Mount, which in those
days was at the north-east corner of the city.

4 The exact meaning of the Hebrew migdal hammTe’d has puzzled modern scholars,
some transliterating it literally as ‘the Tower of Meah’, others interpreting it as the word
me’d (‘hundred’) as an indication of length or distance (i.e. a tower 100 cubits high or
100 cubits away from another location), and still others doubting the very existence of
such a tower: for a range of critical opinion, see Avi-Yonah 1954:241-42; Liid 1992; and
Simons 1954: 343, n. 1. Judging from Bede’s remarks here and later, he evidently took
it to be not a building but an indication of the measurement from the Sheep Gate to the
Tower of Hananel: see below In Ezr. 3.246-47.

5 Another reference to the finger-counting technique of computus: cf. Bede In Ezr.
2.1163-65.

BOOK THREE

163

temporal and base rewards, are as the right hand is to the left. They
are also said to have sanctified the gate 7225/ which they built. For it
is the duty of priests to make their own actions worthy more than
others through a special sanctification, and to do this earnestly so that
those who are joined with them might sanctify the Lord’s name in
themselves by living well.

According to the literal sense, however, the reason that the Sheep
Gate was the first either to be built or to be consecrated by the priests
is that it was in the vicinity of the temple and belonged to them specif¬
ically; for this also appears to accord with reason, that the building of
the city should begin from the temple, no doubt because it is neces¬
sary that before all else we should build up in ourselves constancy of
faith and love for God, and then add those works of devotion which [345]
belong to the love of our neighbour, and thirdly and finally focus on
the care of those matters that relate to the general provision for this
life, concerning which the Apostle says: But if we have food and
clothing, we are content with these} But it also seems probable that it
was called the ‘Sheep Gate’ because the sheep which were offered in
the temple used to be led through it. Thus, the priests build the Sheep
Gate at the commencement of the building of God’s city when, before
all else, holy preachers imbue their listeners with true faith which
works through love,^ the kind of gate through which they should bring
the sacrificial victims of good works and offer these to God on the altar
of their hearts; and they sanctify the building of this gate which
extended through one hundred cubits as far as the Tower of Hananel
(i.e. the grace of God)^ when from the inception of faith they strive
towards the firmness of good action (which is not accomplished
without God’s inspiration and assistance) 7250/ with a singular deter¬
mination for everlasting reward.

We should note, of course, that where our copies (nostri codices)
have and they built the Sheep Gate, the old translation (vetus trans-

latio) has and they built the gate and pool called Probatica.'* John

1 1 Tim. 6:8.

2 Cf. Gal. 5:6.

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:125.11).

4 Bede’s terminology is revealing: contrasted with vetus translatio, nostri codices must
refer to the Vulgate text of Ezra. The use of the plural (codices) suggests that he had
more than one manuscript before him: see Introduction, pp. xvii-xxi. Meanwhile, that
the phrase vetus translatio indicates an Old Latin reading is confirmed by the Vercelli
manuscript, which has et aedificaveruntportam piscinam probaticam (folio 114v, col. 1).

164

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

mentions this name in his gospel when he says: Now in Jerusalem there
is a pool called Probatica, which in Hebrew is called Bethsaida, and
which has five porticos. In these a great many sick people used to lie,^
and so on. Nor is there any reason why one should not understand that
the same place is meant here, for the name TTpoPaxiKfj does not differ
greatly from the name ‘sheep’, for in Greek a sheep is called
TipoPaTov. Jerome too mentions this place in his Book of Places,
writing as follows: ‘The pool of Bethsaida in Jerusalem, which is called
TipoPaTiKp, can be put into our language as “sheep’s pool”. It formerly
had five porticos, and two tanks are there to see. One of these usually
fills up with winter rain, while the other, which is amazingly red as
though its waters are of blood, bears witness to the signs of the ancient
work; for they say that the sacrificial victims were customarily washed
in it by the priests, whence it received its name.’^ From all this it
appears that the Sheep Gate is near the Probatica Pool, namely in
order that the sacrificial offerings that used to be washed in it could
be brought in through it.^

[Neh. 3:3] But the Fish Gate the sons of Hassenaah built. He gives the
name ‘Fish Gate’ to the gate which faced Joppa and Diospolis (i.e.
Lydda).'* ‘It was nearest to the sea of all of Jerusalem’s roads’;^ today
it is said to be called the Gate of David and is the first of the gates to
[346] the west of Mount Zion.'’ This view appears to be borne out 12151 in
the Chronicles, in which it is written about Manasseh king of Judah:

1 John 5:2-3. Bede treats these verses allegorically at the opening of Horn. 1.23
(161.1-13), associating the five porticos with the five books of the Law which protected
the Jewish people.

2 Jerome De situ locorum (PL 23:884D-885A).

3 Cf. Bede Horn. 1.23 (161.17-162.18): "Probatica in Greek means sheep. There were
undoubtedly among that people some who knew how to say to the Lord, We your people
and the sheep of your flock confess you forever. “Probatica”, though, is commonly taken
as “pool of cattle”, called that because the priests used to wash the sacrificial offerings
in it’; trans. Martin and Hurst 2:222-23.

4 Cf. Bede Nom. reg. (173.171-72): ‘Lydda: a city of Palestine located on the shore
of the Great Sea, which is now named Diospolis’. Lydda, now Lod, is in fact ten miles
from the sea.

5 Jerome In Sophoniam 1.10 (CCSL 76A:666.388-9).

6 Cf. Adamnan De locis sanctis 1.3 (CCSL 175:185.9-10). The name Zion originally
referred to the Jebusite fortress captured by David (2 Sam. 5:6-10), which was subse¬
quently named the City of David (1 Kings 8:1; 2 Chron. 5;2). Later it came to refer to
the Temple Mount just to the north of this (Is. 8:18, Jer. 31:6, etc.). Today the name is
used for a different part of Jerusalem, outside the walls to the south-west. As Bede
makes clear at In Ezr. 3.473-78, he uses the name in the first of these designations.

BOOK THREE

165

After this he built a wall outside the City of David, ^ to the west of Gihon
in the valley, from the entrance of the Gate of the Fish in a circuit as far
as Ophel, and he erected it much higher}

Typologically, however, just as a flock stands for the Lord’s faithful,
so in the same way are they frequently called ‘fish’. Hence, just as he
says to Peter, Feed my sheep,^ so too he promises Peter together with
Andrew and the rest of the apostles: Come, follow me, and I will make
you become fishers of men} In a parable he likewise says about these
same fisherman. They collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the
bad away} Therefore, the Fish Gate is built in Jerusalem when those
orders are established in the Church through which the elect, sepa¬
rated from the reprobate like good fish from the bad, may be brought
into the fellowship of perpetual peace; and the Fish Gate is built when
the faithful devote themselves to those works of the virtues by which
they may rescue their neighbours, who observe them, from the waves
of worldly agitation and desire and introduce them to the tranquillity
and peace of the spiritual life.®

The prophet Zephaniah also mentions this gate, saying, the sound
of shouting from the Fish Gate, and of wailing from the second} What
he added, from the second, ‘refers to the gate of a second wall in the
same region’.® For the Chronicles relate that in Hezekiah’s time the
wall of the city was double, writing: Then he worked hard repairing all
the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it, and outside it
he built another wall} This concerns the literal sense. But in accor-

1 The ‘City of David’ was the part of Jerusalem on the ridge to the south of the
Temple Mount. The ‘Gihon Spring' is in the Kidron valley on the east side of the City
of David, just outside the wall; Bede, however, as becomes clear below, mistakenly
believed that the Gihon spring was on the west side of the city. Ophel (‘mound’ or ‘acrop¬
olis’) refers to the highest part of the City of David, near the Gihon spring (Neh. 3:26),
although Bede thought it was a tower of some kind.

2 2 Chron. 33:14.

3 John 21:17.

4 Matt. 4:19.

5 Matt. 13:48.

6 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:121.9-10).

7 Zeph. 1:10.

8 Jerome In Sophoniam 1.10 (CCSL 76A:666.391-92).

9 2 Chron. 32:5. In his earlier work Thirty Questions on the Book of Kings, Bede also
discusses this verse and glosses the phrase ‘from the second’ as meaning another gate
placed outside of and in addition to the first gate or wall: see XXX quaest. 26 (317.1-10).

166

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

dance with the principles of allegory, Zephaniah heard the sound of
shouting 7300/ from the Fish Gate, and of wailing from the second
because he foresaw that both were to be torn down by the enemies.
For he saw that both the faith and the works of teachers, through which
it was proper that others should be rescued from the waves of this
corruptible life^ and brought into the Holy Church, would be thrown
to the ground by the attacks of the ancient enemy - that is, would be
deprived of celestial joys through an appetite for earthly pleasures. For
it is appropriate that, from both gates (namely the first and second, the
outer and inner), he heard the sound of shouting and wailing, because
he saw that both the outer works and the inner hearts of the neglectful
were going to be overthrown by the devil’s warfare. But since the Lord
lifts up those who are dashed downf Nehemiah relates that this same
Fish Gate, after a long period of ruin, was restored because, even
though occasionally some preachers fall through sinning, nevertheless
[347] right up to the end of the world there will be no lack of those who,
following in the place of their predecessors, open the gates of right¬
eousness^ through the Lord’s aid by preaching to the faithful and living"^
well.^ It is well added about the builders of this gate:

[Neh. 3:3] They roofed it, and set in place its doors and bolts and bars.
This verse is also repeated frequently concerning the other gates which
are said to have been built, doubtless because it is necessary that all
who have begun a structure of good action should bring it to the roof
of completion by pressing on with what they have begun and install in
it fortifications of diligent watchfulness, like doors, bolts and bars. For
the reason that doors are placed in the gates is so that at the appro¬
priate time they may be opened and the citizens might have a way of
going in and out; the reason that bolts and bars are set in place is so
that the doors might be closed 7325/ and barred and the enemy kept
from entering. In the same way, therefore, doors of kindly provision
should be placed in our good works so that, upon seeing them, our
fellow citizens (i.e. our neighbours) might glorify our Father who is in
heaven'^ and by our examples learn also to go forward themselves and

1 ‘from the waves of this corruptible’ = ab undis vitae corruptibilis: cf. Bede Horn.
2.2 (194.47).

2 Ps. 146:8 (145:7).

3 Ps. 118:19 (117:19).

4 Reading vivendo for iuvendo: see Appendix 1.

5 Cf. Bede In Sam. 4 (222.424-29).

6 Matt. 5:16.

BOOK THREE

167

enter the walls of the virtues with us. Bolts and bars must also be set
up against the attacks and invasions of enemies, namely so that by dili¬
gent industry we can defend ourselves on all sides lest by chance
through our carelessness the ancient enemy be allowed to enter and
storm the citadel of our virtue. Hence it is well said in Proverbs: A
brother who is helped by a brother is like a strong city; and judgements
are like the bars of cities} For when both peoples (namely Jews and
Gentiles) agree among themselves in brotherly love in Christ, each of
them builds the one Church, i.e. the city of their Creator. And just as
the bars of cities strengthen the gates, in the same way the dogmas of
the truth protect the churches throughout the world - which make up
the one Catholic Church - from the incursions of infidels.^ Likewise,
we set up the bolts and bars of our gate when we vigilantly take care
not to betray the secrets of our faith to pigs or dogs (i.e. to unclean
minds), or perform our acts of righteousness for the sake of human
favour and allow people to enter and see our good works who bring
more danger to us by praising them than they take salutary support
from us by seeing them.

[Neh. 3:6] And Joiada son of Paseah and MeshnUam son of Besodeiah
bnilt the Old Gate. They roofed it, and so on. The Old Gate is the one
which John mentions when he says: Dearest friends, 7350/ I am not
writing anew command to you but an old one, which you have had since
the beginning. This old command is the word that you have heard? The [348]
Old Gate, therefore, is built in Jerusalem when the word of faith and
love, which has been passed on from the beginning of the Holy Church,
has begun either to be restored in those who have gone astray or estab¬
lished in those who have recently come to believe.

[Neh. 3:8] And they left out Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. The
Broad Wall in Jerusalem is the strength and protection of perfect love
in the hearts of the elect at which its architects arrive through the
process of building when, by advancing in works of charity, they can
say to their Creator and Helper: We ran the way of your commands,
for you were broadening our heard - that broadening, doubtless, of a

1 Prov. 18:19.

2 Most of this and the preceding sentence are taken verbatim from Bede’s commen¬
tary on Proverbs: see In prov. Sal. 2 (98.65-70). For further comment, see Introduction,
p. xxiv-xxv.

3 1 John 2:7.

4 Ps. 119:32(118:32).

168

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

mind that has been illuminated, which can love both a friend in God
and an enemy for the sake of God.

[Neh. 3:13] And Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah bnilt the Valley
Gate. We know that the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which was also called
Gehinnom (that is, the Valley of Hinnom), lies toward the eastern side
of the city of Jerusalem, through which the brook of Kidron (of which
mention is made in the gospel)^ flows from north to south when it takes
in water from snow or rain.^ But we read that the Valley of Gihon is
in the west of this same city, as the book of the Chronicles states
concerning King Manasseh of Judah, as was mentioned above: After
this he built a wall outside of the City of David, to the west of Gihon in
the valley? Now Gihon is the name of the spring where Solomon was
anointed king outside the city.'^ Therefore, whether in this passage
Ezra means this or that or 7375/ another valley of this same city, the
mystical meaning is clear, namely that the Valley Gate is built in
Jerusalem when either the elect who recently have been imbued with
knowledge of the faith, or those who had gone astray but have been
restored in the purity of the faith, are ordered by teachers of the truth
to observe among other things the virtue of humility^ so that they may
deserve to be raised up by the greater grace of God, for as Sacred
Scripture says, God resists the proud, but bestows his grace on the
humble,^ and in a psalm: and the valleys will abound with wheat,^ i.e.
the humble will abound with the gifts of heavenly refection. And it is
well that the Valley Gate is built after the Old Gate and the Broad
Wall, no doubt because after the rudiments of catholic faith which are
demonstrated through love, we must be taught to observe humility.

1 Cf. John 18:1.

2 Cf. Bede DLS 5.2 (261.13-16), which draws from Pseudo-Eucherius De situ
Hierosolimae 9 (CCSL 175:238.46-9).

3 2 Chron. 33:14; mentioned earlier at In Ezr. 3.276-78.

4 Cf. 1 Kings 1:45; also Bede In Sam. Nom. loc. (280.274).

5 On the association of the word ‘valley’ (vallis) with humility, see Augustine
Enarrationes in Psalmos 59.2 (CCSL 39;756.65-68), and Ambrose De fide 4.12 (CSEL
78;215.74-76). DeGregorio 2005: 348-51 argues that the mention of an ascent through
humility at this point in the commentary anticipates and helps to prompt Bede’s refer¬
ence to the seventh chapter of the Benedictine Rule and its treatment of the ‘steps of
humility’ {gradus humilitatis) that occurs just ahead at In Ezr. 3. (350.466-73). Cf. the
further references to humility at In Ezr. 3 (348.386) and (349.407).

6 1 Pet. 5:5.

7 Ps. 64:14 (65:13).

BOOK THREE

169

which is the guardian of the virtues,^ so that according to the precept
of the wise man, the greater we are, the more we should humble
ourselves in all things.^

[Neh. 3:13-14] And Malchijah son of Rechab built a thousand cubits
of the wail as far as the Dung Gate, as well as the Dung Gate. They [349]
say that the site of the city of Jerusalem, ‘being laid out on a gentle
slope’, inclines toward the north and east^ in such a way that ‘rainfall
does not accumulate there at all but rather flows out like rivers through
the eastern gates and swells the torrent of Kidron in the valley of
Jehoshaphat, taking with it all the waste of the streets’d And so it
appears likely that the Dung Gate is the one through which refuse and
filth were generally to be driven out. It is not in any way of less virtue
and usefulness for all impure things to be removed from the city of the
Lord than for those things which are pure to be collected into it. 7400/

They who build the Dung Gate in Jerusalem, therefore, are the ones
who ordain to the ministry of the Holy Church those through whom
the filth of the vices is removed from the minds of the elect, but also
through whom people of corrupt mind are kept away from the bound¬
aries of the Church while a shower of heavenly grace helps them and
weakens^ every impurity, so that, according to the psalmist, all who do
evil are eliminated/rom the city of the Lord] And because it is a sign
of great perfection when through the merit of humility a person makes
progress to such an extent that he can vigorously inspect his own errors
and effectively purge what has been detected, rightly is it said that the
same people who built the Valley Gate also constructed a thousand

1 Bede’s wording here recalls Gregory Homiliae in evangelia 1.7.4 (CCSL
141:51.130-31): ‘Knowledge is a virtue, and humility the guardian of virtue'. Cf. below,
In Ezr. 3.466-73.

2 Ecclesi. 3:20.

3 Bede is mistaken here. Jerusalem inclines mainly towards the south, and the Dung
Gate usually is thought to have been situated at the south side, at the bottom of the
Tyropoeon Valley which bisects the city.

4 These quotations are borrowed from Bede’s earlier work On The Holy Places: see
DLS 1.3 (253.24-28). They derive in turn from Adamnan De locis sanctis 1.11 (CCSL
175:186.43-53), on which Bede’s own treatment of holy sites is modelled. Bede’s text is
translated and discussed in Foley and Holder 1999: 1-25.

5 Though the manuscripts have enervante, ‘weakens’, the image is strange, and one
wonders whether everrente, ‘sweeps out’ could be the correct reading.

6 Ps. 101:8 (100:8). In other words, ordained ministers are like the Dung Gate in that,
like a gate, they are the means of removing the filth of sin, and also in that, like a wall,
they guard the boundaries of the Church.

170

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

cubits of the wall up to the Dung Gate. For the number 1000 suggests
perfection/ whereas a cubit suggests a work made by hands and arms.
The faithful also by building along the wall of the holy city for a thou¬
sand cubits from the Valley Gate reach as far as the Dung Gate when,
having received the grace of humility, they surrender themselves to
good works with such great industry of perfection that they cast out
from themselves not only all the debris of harmful action or useless
speech but even of idle thoughts.

[Neh. 3:15] And Shallum son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the pagus of
Mizpah, built the Gate of the Spring. Pagus in Greek means ‘village’
in Latin. However, writers say that ‘from the side of Mount Zion whose
steep cliff faces the east, the spring of Siloa gushes forth inside the walls
and at the foot of the hill. It flows south with a sporadic stream of water
(i.e. the water bubbles up not continuously, but only /425/ at unpre¬
dictable hours and days) and often comes with a loud roar through
hollows of the earth and caverns of very hard rock.’^ It is said that this
is the only spring that the city makes use of, ‘and moreover it is not a
perpetual one’.^ Understand, therefore, that it is this spring that the
gate referred to in this passage is named after, especially since it is
plainly added:

[350] [Neh. 3:15] And the walls of the Pool of Siloa up to King’s Garden,
and as far as the steps that come down from the city of David. The pool
of Siloa (which means ‘sent’), where the man born blind was given
light,'* stands for the Lord Saviour who was sent by God the Father for
our illumination. The spring of this pool can be very aptly understood

1 Gregory Moralia in Job 35.16.42 (CCSL 143B:1803.185-98). The same interpreta¬
tion of the number 1,000 is given by Bede at In Cant. 5 (355.674-79) and De tempi. 2
(211.787-212.789).

2 This quotation is borrowed verbatim from Bede DLS 2.4 (257.62-67). It is based
in turn on Pseudo-Eucherius De situ Hierosolimae 9 (CCSL 175:238.43-46).

3 Cf. Jerome In Hieremiam 3.14.1 (CCSL 74:136.10-12): ‘For Siloam is the only
spring the city makes use of, and moreover it is not a perpetual one, and up until the
present day the lack of rainfall is responsible not only for a scarcity of grain but also of
drinking water’.

4 John 9:7; also Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:122.25), and Augustine
Sermo 1 (CCSL 41:72.61-62). The spring that comes out just outside the walls on the
east side of Jerusalem is the one usually known as Gihon. It was, however, joined by a
long tunnel to a pool called the Pool of Siloam or Shiloah or Shelah (inside the walls
near the Dung Gate) by King Hezekiah (2 Chron. 32:30). Here, however, Bede appears
to confuse the pool and the spring.

BOOK THREE

171

as the same Father from whom he was born, about which the psalmist
well says: For with you is the spring of life; in your light we shall see
light} And the Spring Gate is built in Jerusalem when teachers are
ordained in the Church to preach belief in divine eternity to the
nations. The walls of the Pool of Siloa are built too when the very firm
and invincible testimonies of the Scriptures, in which the mystery of
the Lord’s incarnation is described, are rooted in the mind of the
faithful. Moreover these walls of divine utterances reach as far as the
King’s Garden when, having recognized the mysteries of the Lord’s
dispensation, we begin to bring forth shoots of the virtues with the help
of that same most high king, our Lord God. They arrive as far as the
steps that come down from the city of David when one has learned to
advance by means of spiritual desires from the common life of the
faithful to the things of heaven. For the steps that come down from the
city of David to the lower parts of the city of Jerusalem are the aids of
divine inspiration 7450/ or protection by which we are gradually
aroused so that we might be able to reach the walls of the heavenly
kingdom. For David made the steps by which we should ascend to his
city when divine mercy taught us the order of the virtues by which we
may seek heavenly things and when it granted us the gift of seeking
these same virtues. Doubtless it is about these steps that the psalmist
said: Blessed is the man whose help is from you, Oh Lord; he has placed
ascents in his heart,^ and so on until he says: They will walk from virtue
to virtue; the God of gods will be seen in Zion? The builders of the holy
city arrive at these steps, therefore, after building the walls of the Pool
Siloa and the King’s Garden when, after the mysteries of the Lord’s
incarnation have been revealed whereby the Gentile world blind from
birth has been cleansed and illuminated, and after the sprouts of good
action have begun to grow through faith, holy teachers at the appro¬
priate moment more diligently reveal the progress of the virtues to
their hearers, whereby they may ascend to the vision of their Creator,
namely him ‘of the strong hand’ or ‘the desirable one’, which is the
meaning of the name ‘David’.'* Benedict, a father very reverend both
in his name and in his life, realized that these steps especially consist

1 Ps. 36:9 (35:10).

2 Ps. 84:5 (83:6).

3 Ps. 84:7 (83:8).

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:103.11). cf. In Ezr. 1.663, where Bede
uses the same etymological word-play on David’s name to refer to Jesus.

172

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[351] in humility when, interpreting our journey to celestial things to be
designated by the ladder shown to the Patriarch Jacob, by which angels
ascended and descended,^ he distinguished in a very careful and pious
examination the steps of the ladder itself as the increments and stages
of good works that are performed through humility? According to the
literal meaning, however, the city of David is named Mount Zion
because ‘it is situated on the south side and towers over the city as its
citadel’^ and the greater part /475/ of the city lies below the mountain
on the plateau of a lower hill. For this reason it is written in the Book
of Kings: But David captured the citadel of Zion, that is the City of
Davidf and a little later on: David then took up residence in the citadel
and called it the City of David]

[Neh. 3:16] Beyond him, Nehemiah son of Azbnk,^ ruler of half the
town of Beth-zur, built up to a point opposite the tomb of David...

Note that King David was buried not in Bethlehem, as some claim, but
in Jerusalem;’ and indeed this is not without a certain mystical reason.

1 Gen. 28:12.

2 See Regula Benedicti 1 (ed. Fry 191-202). St Benedict (c. 480-543), the father of
Western monasticism and author of the Benedictine Rule. While allusions to the latter
occur throughout Bede’s exegetical works, this is the only time Bede refers to Benedict
by name. Benedict’s rule may have reached England as early as 597 with the arrival of
Augustine and his companions whom Pope Gregory sent to convert the Anglo-Saxons.
Clearly the Anglo-Saxons had an interest in the rule: the oldest surviving extant copy
is of English provenance, while the first translation into a vernacular language was the
work of Bishop TEthelwold, one of the leaders of the tenth-century English monastic
reform movement, who translated the text into Old English and, following Carolingian
precedent, saw to its universal implementation in England. The degree to which it was
followed in Bede’s day, however, is less clear. The reigning consensus is that it was just
one of many rules known in eighth-century Northumbria and that it did not monopo¬
lize monastic practice as it would in later years, though its prominence at Bede’s
Wearmouth-Jarrow seems clear: on this point, see Gretsch 1973; Mayr-EIarting 1976;
Wormald 1976; Van der Walt 1986; Foot 1990; and DeGregorio 2005. As DeGregorio
2005: 349-50 has noted, Bede’s mention of Benedict at this particular moment appears
to be triggered by the word gradus, ‘steps’, in Neh. 3:15, which, when combined with his
discussion of the virtue of humility just previously at Neh. 3:13, calls to mind the gradus
humilitatis of Regula Benedicti 1.

3 Borrowed from Bede DLS 1.1 (252.5-6), which in turn borrows from Pseudo-
Eucherius De situ Hierosolimae 3 (CCSL 175:237.11-14).

4 2 Sam. 5:7.

5 2 Sam. 5:9.

6 This Nehemiah is not to be confused with Nehemiah son of Flelchias, the main
protagonist of Book 3.

7 Cf. 1 Kings 2:10-11; 1 Chron. 29:26-28.

BOOK THREE

173

For just as David, who was born and anointed king in Bethlehem,^
prefigured the Lord Christ who would be born from his own seed in
that very place and worshipped as a king by the Magi,^ so likewise
when David died and was buried in Jerusalem, he symbolized the same
Lord who would suffer and be buried in this same city but would very
soon arise again from the tomb.

Therefore, beyond the Spring Gate and the walls of the Pool of
Siloa, which reach into the King’s Garden and all the way up to the
steps that come down from the city of David, the dimensions of the
holy city extend even to a point opposite the tomb of the same David,
because he who preaches belief in divine eternity, the dispensation of
the Lord’s incarnation, and the fruitfulness of the Church as she
cleaves to Christ (about whom he himself says. My sister my spouse is
an enclosed garden^ declares to faithful listeners not only that the
steps of good works whereby they may ascend to their eternal home¬
land should be imitated by them, but he also considers it necessary to
remind them constantly of the mystery of the Lord’s passion so that
they might recognize that through him who died for them and was
raised againf they themselves also 7500/ will be lifted up to life from
the land and the shadow ofdeath^ and ascend to the heavenly kingdom.
Moreover, there properly follows:

[Neh. 3:16] ...and up to the pool that was built with great labour and
to the House of the Strong. The pool built with great labour can be
understood not inappropriately as Divine Scripture, which, composed
as it was by the work of the Holy Spirit, supplies us with the bath to
expiate our sins as well as with the cup of the taste of salvation, and
which, if changed into wine for us by the Lord (that is, if it has been
translated into the spiritual sense), intoxicates us with an even more
pleasing sweetness of truth. The House of the Strong is also here,
because all who are accustomed to being refreshed by the abundant [352]
streams of divine utterances by hearing and practising them are
rendered strong and invincible against all the attacks of the ancient
enemy. Beyond the tomb of David in the holy city, therefore, the pool
built with great labour is situated, and next to it the House of the

1 Cf. 1 Sam. 16:1,13.

2 Cf. Matt. 2:1-2.

3 Song 4:12.

4 2 Cor. 5:15.

5 Cf. Is. 9:1; Matt. 4:16; Luke 1:79.

174

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Strong, because through the Lord’s passion is revealed to us the depth
of the Scriptures through whose abundance the hearts of the faithful
are strengthened and the city of Christ rendered unconquerable to all
enemies. For when the waters dry up or are blocked by an enemy, a
city is easily captured; and if the ancient enemy were to remove the
spring of God’s word from us, nothing would prevent the savage
assailant and destroyer from immediately ascending the citadel of our
mind.

[Neh. 3:19] And next to him Ezer son of Jeshna, rnler of Mizpah, bnilt
another stretch opposite the ascent of the strongest corner. The first
wall of the city is built up to this point. Henceforth begins the second
stretch, that is, of the inner wall about which we have spoken above.^
7525/ Thus in this description it is said that many workers built in front
of their own homes; for very many homes in the city were either near
or joined to the inner wall. After the construction of the outer wall,
therefore, there follows a stretch of a second wall in our city also when
after perfecting our deeds and our tongue, which are apparent even to
men, we strive rather to please God in the inner parts of our thoughts
in case even in our mind we presume to conceive anything of those
things which may offend the eyes of the inner judge. And it is well said
that the second stretch was built opposite the ascent of the strongest
corner. For the ‘strongest corner’ is the Lord, who united the Jewish
and Gentile peoples in faith and love for him, which is why he is called
a ‘cornerstone’ in the psalm and in Isaiah.^ The second stretch is built
opposite the ascent of this corner when through the purity of devout
thought we strive to reach a vision of our Creator and when, though
still detained in this life, we sigh in constant desire for a vision of him.
After this there follow the very many groups of workers who are
reported to have built the second stretch, because the greatest struc¬
ture of the Holy Church is in the protection of inner virtue, namely
when we keep our heart with all vigilance since/rom it flows this life}
It would take too long to discuss these one by one and to treat them
all with an eye to their spiritual meaning.

[Neh. 3:26] But the Nathinnites were living in Ophel as far as a point
facing the Water Gate towards the east and the projecting tower. The

1 Cf. above In Ezr. 3.293-98.

2 Ps. 118:22 (117:22); Is. 28:16.

3 Prov. 4:23.

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Nathinnites are said to be inhabitants of Gibeon,^ who 7550/ used to [353]
serve with faithful devotion in the worship of the Lord’s house
according to the arrangement of Joshua son of Nun. Ophel was a tower
of immense height not far from the temple. This is why it received the
name Ophel (that is, ‘darkness’ or ‘cloudy’), ‘because it raised its head
up into the clouds’.^ In fact where in Zechariah it is written. Oh cloudy
tower of the flock, of the daughter of Zion,^ in the Hebrew ‘the tower
of Ophel’ is written for ‘cloudy tower’.The book of Chronicles
mentions this tower and shows in which part of the city it is when it
states about King Manasseh (as was mentioned above)^ that he built
a wall outside the City of David, to the westofGihon in the valley, from
the entrance of the Fish Gate in a circuit as far as Ophel]" Thus, it was
fitting with respect to location that the temple servants were dwelling
in a tower near the temple.

But according to the mystical sense too, the Nathinnites dwell
in Ophel (that is, in a cloudy tower) when those who have been dedi¬
cated to God by the profession of a more perfect life do not cease
either in their action or thought to remain always in the protection and
height of the virtues, saying with the Apostle that our dwelling is in
heaven] The common crowd bears witness in wonderment to these
people, saying: Who are these that fly like clouds!^ Similarly, the
Nathinnites dwelP in Ophel when all those distinguished by the reli¬
gious habit have learned to penetrate with illuminated heart the
hidden things of the Scriptures, about which it was said, the dark water
in the clouds of the air^° (that is, the mystical knowledge contained in

1 Cf. Josh. 9:16-27. On the Nathinnites, see above In Ezr. 1.535-39 and the accom¬
panying note.

2 Jerome In Esaiam 10.32.9/20 (CCSL 73:408.31-33).

3 Micah 4:8. Although the reference is to Micah, the manuscripts indicate that Bede
mistakenly wrote Zacharia.

4 As Sutcliffe 1935 has shown, when Bede refers to the Hebrew text of the Bible, it
is almost certain that he is borrowing from some work of Jerome rather than consulting
the Hebrew text itself; in the present passage, for example, Bede’s knowledge of this
Hebrew reading is taken from Jerome’s commentary on Micah: see Jerome In
Michaeam 2.4.8/9 (CCSL 76:474.250-53).

5 See In Ezr. 3.276-78.

6 2 Chron. 33:14.

7 Phil. 3:20.

8 Is. 60:8.

9 Reading habitant for habitabant: see Appendix 1. Cf. also In Ezr. 3.562 and 588.

10 Ps. 18:12(17:12).

176

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

the prophets), and to meditate day and night on the reading of these.
Concerning the abode of these people it is aptly added: as far as a point
facing the Water Gate towards the east and the projecting tower. For
the Water Gate is the Lord, 7575/ who waters us with the daily grace
of his mercy so that we do not fail amidst the hardships of this life. The
psalmist was yearning to enter this gate when he said: Just as the stag
desires springs of water, so my soul desires you, Oh Godh It is appro¬
priately recalled that this gate was placed towards the east, doubtless
because the same Lord who intoxicates us with the torrent of his
pleasure^ so that we do not thirst also illuminates us with the gift of his
visitation so that we do not remain blind in the darkness of our sins,
according to what Zechariah says: He visited us, arising from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death?
He himself also defends us with the guard of his protection so that we
are not touched by the enemy, which is why there properly follows,
and up to the projecting tower; understanding this, the psalmist said:
You have led me away, for you have become my hope, a tower of
strength in the face of my enemy? Therefore, the Nathinnites dwell in
[354] Ophel up to a point facing the Water Gate towards the east and the
projecting tower when all the faithful who are dedicated to the sacred
readings rejoice to be intoxicated and illuminated by the grace of
divine mercy, and always to be protected from the enemy by its help.
And because after the present gifts of the virtues we ascend to see the
glory of the man who is the Lord,^ it rightly adds:

[Neh. 3:27] After it the Tekoites built another stretch out of the region,
from the great eminent tower as far as the wall of the temple. For the
wall of the temple is the body of the Lord Saviour about which he
himself said to the Jews: Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in
three days? Those who persecuted him destroyed this temple of his
body in death, 7600/ but those who loved him saw it raised and lifted
up to heaven in glory, and they do not cease to see him forever.
Therefore, the building of the holy city reaches from the great eminent

IPs. 42:1 (41:2).

2 On difference between good and bad pleasure, see Bede Epist. Cath. (273.192-
274.213).

3 Luke 1:78-79.

4 Ps. 61:3-4 (60:3-4).

5 ‘the glory of the man who is the Lord’ = claritatem dominici hominis.

6 John 2:19.

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177

tower as far as the wall of the temple when all righteous people, from
the height of contemplation, to which even in this life they raise their
mind, looking down on temporal things in order to desire celestial
ones, in the next life really do ascend to observe the splendour of the
Lord’s incarnation, when even the glory of divine eternity is revealedd
And since a ‘takua (thecuay is a bugle or trumpet and the Tekoites are
interpreted as ‘buglers’,^ it is fittingly said that the Tekoites built this;
for it is the function of teachers, whose sound has gone out into all the
earthy to reveal in his city (that is, to his people, the faithful) both
God’s present gifts and his future ones.

[Neh. 3:28] Above this as far as the Gate of the Horses the priests built,
each man in front of his own house. Jeremiah mentions this gate and
indicates that it is in the eastern part of the city when he writes typo-
logically about the Church: And the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord
from the tower of Hananelf and a little afterwards: up to the torrent of
Kidron and as far as the corner of the Gate of the Horses on the east.^

Now horses, when they are put to good use, just as asses, camels and
mules also do, sometimes represent peoples of the Gentiles who have
been converted to the Lord, and at other times concerns for temporal
matters that have been duly subjugated to the rule of the soul. And
the priests built the wall of God’s city up to the Gate of the Horses
when, after the calling of the Jewish people, holy teachers 7625/ by
spreading the word went on to lead the peoples of the Gentiles into
the Holy Church. Similarly, they build up to the Gate of the Horses
when they show satisfactory examples of living to those who enter the
doors of the Holy Church in order to bridle the wanton motions of [355]
their flesh or soul, or perhaps when they control their own thoughts
with which they consider it necessary to worry about their own and
their family’s food and clothing® in such a way that these thoughts in
no way impede the freedom of that mind with which they have
resolved always to seek heavenly things.

1 Bede is saying that while it is possible for righteous people even in this life to reach
a certain height through contemplative prayer, it is only in the next life that they will
experience a full vision of God’s glory. See DeGregorio 1999 for extensive treatment
of Bede’s views on contemplation.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:109.9-11; 123.27-28).

3 Ps. 19:4 (18:5).

4Jer. 31:38.

5 Jer. 31:40.

6 Cf. Matt. 6:31.

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Here too it is properly added about those who were labouring, each
man in front of his own honse. This expression is repeated frequently
in this construction of the holy city, and there is no need in our expla¬
nation to belabour how in the Holy Church everyone ought to build a
wall of virtues in front of his own house and fortify his own mind
against the attacks of the devil, so that he who prowls around like a
roaring lion seeking someone to devour^ cannot at any point break in,
so long as everyone has fortified his own body and mind with strong
faith in the Lord. But everyone also builds in front of his own home if
he protects those who have been entrusted to his charge by scrupulous
observance of regular discipline^ so that they cannot be deceived either
by an invasion of vices or by heretical persuasion. It would take a long
time to explain by spiritual interpretation the individual buildings or
builders of the holy city, which the experienced reader will very easily
understand even though we remain silent. All we need note is that
those who build the gates and the towers, by which means either the
citizens may enter or the enemies be kept out, are none other than the
prophets, apostles and evangelists,^ through whom the form and order
of faith and righteous action whereby 7650/ we should enter the unity
of the Holy Church'* have been ministered to us, and through whose
words we learn how we may refute and repel the adversaries of truth.
Those, on the other hand, who build the rest by their words are the
pastors and teachers, whom the Apostle has appointed in the second
place,^ through whose industriousness up to this day the catholic faith
which was built by the great architects of the Church is preserved
throughout the world. And just as Nehemiah, by enumerating consec¬
utively all the builders of the city, makes them forever memorable, so
too the Lord, the Consoler of our poverty, records in heaven the names
of all who build his Church among the elect. But let us also consider
what remains.

[Neh. 4:1-2] Now it came to pass that when Sanaballat heard that we
were building the wail, he became very angry and, being greatly
incensed, he ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his brethren

1 1 Pet. 5:8.

2 ‘by scrupulous observance of regular discipline’ = custodia disciplinae regidaris: cf.
In Ezr. 1.634—5 and the accompanying note.

3 Cf. 1 Cor. 12:28.

4 Cf. Eph. 4:13.

5 Cf. Eph. 4:11.

BOOK THREE

179

and a crowd of Samaritans said, ‘What are these feeble Jews doing?

Are the Gentiles leaving them alone?’ Obviously this is the anger of
heretics, these the words of those who in vain call themselves
‘Samaritans’ (that is, the ‘guardians of God’s law’)^ despite the fact
that they are greatly opposed to God and his laws inasmuch as, having
been long separated from the House of David (that is, from the unity
of Christ and the Church) by heresies or schisms or wicked works, they [356]
are afraid to see the walls of the faith being built lest their own irrev¬
erence might be attacked and excluded; this is the ridicule of all who
claim that they know God, but in their deeds they deny him] for indeed
the Samaritans used to serve the Lord but without repudiating their
own ancient gods. Typologically, they are imitated today by Christians
but in such a way that they also consider their stomach a god^ 16151 and
pursue greed (which the Apostle clearly calls slavery to idolsY and,
being slaves to the remaining allurements of the world, serve created
things more than the Creator, who is praised forever] And so, just like
heretics, such people do not want the walls of the Church to be restored
in case they are forced by the growing state of piety to retreat from
their own impiety; such ones are wont to call the Jews (that is, confes¬
sors of the faith)^ ‘feeble’, and say that they will be easily overthrown
by the Gentiles, since in the daily battle of souls they love sins more
than obtaining the victory palm of virtue. And because there are some
among the heretics who deny that pardon is given even to those who
do penance after falling, it is rightly added in their person:

[Neh. 4:2] Will they be able to build with the stones out of heaps of
dust, burned as they are? For burnt stones from heaps of dust are used
for building and replaced in the work of the holy city when either those
who have been conquered by the fire of persecutions and have denied
the faith, or those who have been subdued by the pleasures of sins and
have lost the purity of good works, regain their senses through the
Lord’s mercy so that by steadfast profession they may reacquire the
integrity of the catholic faith and, once they have amended their ways,
may obtain the adornments of the virtues.

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:142.3).

2 Tit. 1:16.

3 Cf. Phil. 3:19.

4 Cf. Eph. 5:5.

5 Rom. 1:25.

6 Isidore Etymologiae 8.4.1.

180

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[Neh. 4:3] But even Tobiah the Ammonite, who was closest to him,
said: ‘Let them build: if even a fox climb upon it, she will leap over
their wall of stones’. Both the person and the words of this Tobiah are
appropriate for heretics: the person because his ancestor Ammon was
conceived from incest and drunkenness and at night and in a cave.^ It
is very clear to anyone that all these things apply to arch-heretics,
whose entire origin derives from pleasures 7700/ of the flesh and impu¬
rity,^ from the darkness of errors or iniquities, and from secret
assemblies and not from the common creed of the Holy Church. Not
in merit or truth but in self-exaltation and pride does this same Tobiah
(that is to say, ‘the good man of the Lord’)^ say that the wall of the
holy city could be leapt over by a fox. Heretics can clearly be called
foxes, which is why there is that saying in the Song of Songs, Catch us
[357] the little foxes that ruin the vineyards] which is to say openly, ‘Capture
and bring into the light by exposing to ridicule the rotten and sly
trickery of heretics, with which they strive to corrupt the fruitful minds
of the faithful’. Thus, he says, if a fox climb upon it, he wUl leap over
their wall of stones - if some heretic rises up against their assertion of
faith, he will immediately overcome and throw down under his feet all
confidence in their teaching, which they boast is founded in Christ as
if built of strong stone. But the writer of this sacred history adds in
imprecation what will come to blasphemers of this sort:

[Neh. 4:4] Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insult on
their own head and cause them to be despised in a land of captivity,
and so on. Similar to this is that saying of the psalmist speaking about
the enemies of the elect as it were in the form of one wicked man: His
sorrow shall be turned on his own head: and his iniquity shall come
down upon him]

[Neh. 4:9] And we prayed to our God and set watchmen on the wall
day and night against them. This is the sole 7725/ refuge against all
enemies of the Church - namely prayer to God and the zeal of teachers

1 See Gen. 19:30-38; cf. below In Ezr. 3 1902-08.

2 Reading immunditia for immundiatia: see Appendix 1.

3 Jerome In Zachariam 2.6.9/15 (CCSL 76A:797.222); and cf. Bede In Sam. 1
(47.1482-83). The Hebrew name tdbtydh means ‘Yahweh is my good’ (Brown-Driver-
Briggs 1996:375), yet Bede, following Jerome, evidently thought it means ’the good man
of the Lord’.

4 Song 2:15. Bede’s exegesis of this verse in In Cant. 2 (226.585-227.617) makes the
same correlation between foxes and heretics.

5 Ps. 7:16 (7:17).

BOOK THREE

181

who, meditating day and night on his law, fortify the hearts of the
faithful against the attacks of the devil and his soldiers by preaching,
consoling, and exhorting.

[Neh. 4:10] Moreover, Judah said: ‘The strength of him who carries
has given out, and the rubble is too great, and we wUl not be able to
build the wall’. By ‘Judah’ he means the tribe of the descendants of
Judah. He complains that the wall cannot be built because too much
rubble had been piled up in the place where the wall was to be built
that first had to be cleared away so that the foundations of the wall
could be established on living ground. This accords with the parable
of the house in the Gospel,^ whose builder dug deep and having
removed a heap of earth, laid the foundations on rock which no onrush
of waters or winds could throw down. For first we must remove from
our heart the rubble of earthly desires and next build upon the foun¬
dation of faith the sturdy and invincible wall of good works, for
whoever strives to erect an edifice of holy action on the rubble and
debris of base thoughts is deceiving himself; and instead of a house or
a city he will discover, as soon as a storm of temptation beats against
it, that he has built a ruin.

[Neh. 4:11] And our enemies said, ‘Let them not know it nor under¬
stand until we come among them and kUl them and cause the work to [358]
cease’, and so on until it says: I stationed the people in order behind
the wall in a circuit, with their swords and spears and bows.^ These
things are also always done in the spiritual edifice. For the unwearied
enemy lies in waiting with his unclean companions (namely 7750/ mali¬
cious spirits and people) who constantly endeavour to impede and, in
so far as they can, to assault the works of the faith and virtues when¬
ever we are incautious, and they attempt to kill the mind of the faithful
with the sword of depraved suggestion. But against these we must,
according to the Apostle, take up the armour of God so that we may
be able to resist on the evil day and to stand perfect in all things? Now
is it well said that he stationed the people behind the wall in a circuit
with weapons so that, surrounded by a troop of armed men, the
builders might press on in building the wall with a freer and securer
hand. For the grades of the faithful are divided up: some build up the
Church by adorning it with good works on the inside, while others.

1 Cf. Matt. 7:25; Luke 6:48.

2 Neh. 4:13.

3 Eph. 6:13.

182

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

armed with the weapons of sacred reading, keep vigilant for heretics
who attack the same Church.^ The former in religious devotion
strengthen their neighbours in the truth of the faith, while the latter
wage a necessary battle against the weapons of the devil or of the vices
with which they struggle to assault this same faith, and with pastoral
solicitude repel the wolves lying in ambush from the Lord’s sheepfold.
[Neh. 4:15] And it came to pass, when onr enemies heard that it had
been reported to ns, God frnstrated their connsel, and we all retnrned
to the walls, each man to his own work. In the spiritual edifice too, if
we are always clothed with the apostolic armour,^ the stratagem of the
devil and his angels who desire to subdue us will be foiled.

[Neh. 4:16] And it came to pass from that day on, that half of the yonng
men were doing the work, and the other half were ready to fight, and
so on until it is said, with one of his hands he did the work and with
the other held a sword, 11151 for every one of the bnilders had girt his
loins with a sword.^ For it should be noted not only that half of the
young men did the work and half were prepared to fight, but also that
these same young men who were doing the work were all equipped
with a sword. For so great is the ancient enemy’s craftiness, so great
the fury of his malice when he fights against the Church, that not only
preachers of the truth but even the very people of God themselves
must always keep watch against his machinations, as though standing
firm in battle. For the builders gird their loins with a sword when those
who take pains to persevere in good works, and who take pains to
govern those in their charge by means of an ordered regimen'* (that is,
[359] to place the living stones in the edifice of the holy city in suitable
arrangement), endeavour to restrain in themselves the laxness of
wanton behaviour with the sharpness of God’s word. And we should

1 Usually when discussing the grades of the faithful, Bede offers a threefold division
of the married, the continent and, for the third category, either virgins or rulers: see In
Sam. 1 (21.403- 12, 40.1221-25); In Luc. 5 (321.1019-26); De tab. 1 (31.1045-49 and
34.1167-35.1173); and De tempi. 1 (163.636—41). The twofold division offered here sepa¬
rates the faithful into the laity on the one hand, whose good works help to build up the
Church, and on the other those monastic teachers who use their learning and superior
knowledge of the faith to safeguard the laity. Such a division is implied elsewhere in
Bede; see, for instance. In Cant. 1 (209.749-59).

2 Cf. Eph. 6;13.

3 Neh. 4;17-18.

4 ‘by means of an ordered regime’ = regulari ratione: cf. In Ezr. 1.634-35 and the
accompanying note.

BOOK THREE

183

not pass over the fact that when David and Solomon were building this
same city, nothing is said about armed builders or attacking adver¬
saries; rather, the city destroyed by their wrongdoings is restored with
greater labour and effort, firstly because the spiritual edifice, which is
concerned with the salvation of souls, is such that, as soon as we are
reborn in baptism through the faith and confession of the Holy Trinity,
we are made, through God’s grace, his city and house without any
effort of our own; but if after our ablution in the sacred font we fall
back into sins through the devil’s seduction and the victorious enemy
demolishes the defences of our virtues with the fire of the vices, it is
necessary for us to repair those buildings of good works that we have
lost through more serious efforts of prayer, mortification, vigils, alms,
and a stricter lifed For 7800/ it is harder for us to be free of known
enticements of the vices than unknown ones and less effort to avoid
an unknown pleasure of the flesh than to reject a familiar one.

[Neh. 4:22] At that time also I said to the people: ‘Have every man
and his servant stay inside Jernsalem, and let ns take onr tnrns by night
and day to work’. Notice how much zeal they had for working - they
persisted in their task even at night. So too did the Apostle, who used
to toil night and day with his hands so that he would not weary any of
the believers by asking for food.^ Unless perhaps the turns to work
should be supposed to have succeeded each other in such a way that
some would labour by day on the work of the wall while others would
act as watchmen throughout the night against the incursions of their
enemies. For the builders of our city also do both together, and the
same people who build the Church by instructing the faithful also, by
refuting unbelievers and deniers, prevent them from harming the
Church.

[Neh. 5:1-4] Now there was a great outcry of the people and their
wives against their Jewish brethren. And there were some who were
saying, ‘Our sons and our daughters are too numerous; let us take corn
for their price, and let us eat and drink’. And there were others who
were saying, ‘Let us mortgage our fields, our vineyards and our homes,
and let us get grain during the famine’. Still others were saying, ‘Let
us borrow money for the king’s tax, and let us give up our fields and
vineyards’, and so on. The people desired to construct the city wall but

1 Cf. In Ezr. 2.694-707.

2 Cf. 1 Cor. 4:12; 2 Thess. 3:8.

184

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

were being hindered from the holy work by the severity of the famine.
This famine had been caused not only by a scarcity of crops but also
by the greed of the rulers, since they were demanding greater taxes
from these people than they were able to pay. 7825/ We see that this
[360] occurs among us in the same manner everyday. For how many are
there among God’s people who willingly desire to obey the divine
commands but are hindered from being able to fulfil what they desire
not only by a lack of temporal means and by poverty but also by the
examples of those who seem to be endowed with the garb of religion,
but who exact an immense tax and weight of worldly goods from those
whom they claim to be in charge of while giving nothing for their
eternal salvation either by teaching them or by providing them with
examples of good living or by devoting effort to works of piety for
them?^ Would that some Nehemiah (i.e. a ‘consoler from the Lord’)
might come in our own days and restrain our errors, kindle our breasts
to love of the divine, and strengthen our hands by turning them away
from our own pleasures to establishing Christ’s city!^

But we should observe according to the literal meaning that the
unhappy outcry of the afflicted people was attended by a threefold
distinction. For some, compelled by the famine, were proposing to sell
their own children to the more wealthy for food; others, sparing their
children, wished rather to give up their fields and own homes for food;
and some, by contrast, prohibiting the sale of both children and fields.

1 This passage rings strongly of the Letter to Bishop Ecgberht, which is virulent in its
condemnation of those ecclesiasts ‘who most sedulously demand earthly recompense
from those who listen to them, but at the same time devote no attention to their eternal
salvation by way of preaching, moral exhortation, or rebukes’, Epist. Ecg. 1 (410), trans.
McClure and Collins 347. The Letter’s, attack on the levying of compulsory church dues
in return for pastoral care is plainly echoed in the present passage’s mention of ‘an
immense tax and weight of worldly goods’ (immensum rerum saecularium pondiis ac
vectigaly, cf. further In Ezr. 3.893-99, which speaks of those who seek a ‘reward’
{questiim) for pastoral work; and In Ezr. 3.1866-74, which, more tellingly, rails against
priests who demand ‘payments due to their rank’ (sumptus quidem suo gradui debitos).
Such remarks connect On Ezra and Nehemiah with the Letter’s reforming agenda (see
Introduction, pp. xxx-xxxvi); moreover, they add to the tiny body of evidence we have
for compulsory church dues in Bede’s Northumbria. For further discussion, see
DeGregorio 2004:12-13; and Blair 2005:155-56. On the proper use of wealth by clerics
and preachers, cf. above In Ezr. 1.282-96 and the accompanying note.

2 A striking remark, which demonstrates Bede’s interest in the literal story told in
Ezra-Nehemiah and his recognition of its value as a key to reform: see Introduction,
pp. xxxii-xxxiii and DeGregorio 2004: 11-13,16.

BOOK THREE

185

were urging that they should merely borrow money for the king’s
taxes, giving their fields and vineyards as a pledge until a fruitful supply
of crops returned and they could restore to the money-lenders what
they had borrowed.

[Neh. 5:7-8] And I rebuked the nobles and officials and said to them,

‘Are each of you to exact interest from your own brethren?’ And I
called together a large meeting against them, and said to them: ‘We,
as you know, have bought back 7850/ our brethren the Jews who were
sold to the GentUes, according to our means, and now you are selling
our brothers, and we are buying them?’, and so on until it says: ‘I and
my brethren and my servants have lent money and grain to very many
people. Let us together not require that loan to be repaid!^ As the most
excellent leader of the heavenly militia^ and wise architect^ of God’s
city, he first of all declared that he himselE had done what he wished
the nobles and magistrates of the people to do, namely to give alms^
to the poor and seek nothing from them save faithfulness to God’s law
and the building of his city. In this passage, it behoves us not to scru¬
tinize the allegorical meaning but to observe the literal meaning of the
text itself by performing it as diligently as we can,® namely so that quite
apart from the daily fruits of almsgiving, we should take care when¬
ever a general time of famine and want has afflicted the people not
only to give poor people what we can but also to forgive that tribute
which we have been accustomed to exact from our subjects as though
by right, in order that the Father might forgive us our debts too.’ Now
this passage comes to a terrible conclusion when it says:

[Neh. 5:13] Moreover, I shook the folds of my robe and said, ‘So may [361 ]
God shake out from his house and out of his labours every man who
does not keep this word. So may such a man be shaken out and made
a wanderer!’ For whoever either refuses to show mercy on poor people
or is not ashamed to demand from them, as if lawfully, what they do

1 Neh. 5:10.

2 dux militiae caelestis: a phrase employed by Ambrose Explanatio psalmorum 39
(CSEL 64:218.5) and Expositio evangelii secundum Liicam 5.97 (CCSL 14:167.1026-27);
cf. Luke 2:13.

3 1 Cor. 3:10.

4 Reading ipsum for ipse', see Appendix 1.

5 Reading elemosinam.. .dando for elemosinam.. .dandam'. see Appendix 1.

6 On the importance of the Ezra saga’s literal meaning, cf. below In Ezr. 3.1174-78.

7 Matt. 6:12; Luke 11:4.

186

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

not have to give, this person is shaken from his house (namely, is cast
and shaken out from the fellowship of the Holy Church in which he
believed he would remain forever) and /875/ deprived of his labours,
doubtless, that is, of the fruit of good works in which he believed that
he had toiled admirably. For labours performed without piety cannot
become fruitful before the Lord. But how greatly this reproach or
curse of Nehemiah moved the hearts of all becomes evident when it is
immediately added:

[Neh. 5:13] And the whole assembly said, ‘Amen,’ and praised God,
and then it is added: So the people did as he had said. For when upon
hearing his declaration they all responded ‘Amen’ and, praising God,
did what Nehemiah had commanded, it is surely evident that they had
not been forced by fear but had received his words in the inmost affec¬
tion of their heart.

[5:14] Now from the day in which the king commanded me to be
governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year untU the thirty-
second year of King Artaxerxes (a total of twelve years), neither I nor
my brethren ate the yearly provisions that were due to the governors,

and so on. Explaining this by means of a type, the Apostle says that
the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should
receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these
things.^ For twelve years, Nehemiah and his brethren so lived under
his leadership that they would not eat the yearly provisions that were
due to the governors, so that by this he might mystically suggest that
that work is an apostolic one when someone who has been promoted
to be a ruler of God’s people nobly undertakes the work of the ruler
by building the Church but does not seek a reward for his work by
asking for earthly goods from those whom he rules by preaching and
living well.^

[Neh. 6:1] 7900/ And it came to pass, when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem
the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the
wall, and the rest until they say: ‘Come and let us make a pact together
in calves on one plain’.^ But they were scheming to harm me. So I sent
messengers to them saying : ‘I am doing a great work and cannot go

1 1 Cor. 9:14-15.

2 On the theme of clerical avarice, see above In Ezr. 3.825-37 and the accompanying
note.

3 in campo uno. Bede evidently took uno in this instance as the word for ‘one', but
it is actually a place-name: cf. Neh. 11:35, Ezra 2:33 and 1 Chron. 8:12.

BOOK THREE

187

down, in case the work is neglected when I come and go down to you’.^

The enemies of the holy city are urging Nehemiah to go down to the
plains and to enter into a peace pact with them by together slaugh¬
tering calves as testimony to the arranged treaty, but he perseveres in [362]
the mountains so that the devout work is not neglected. So too, heretics
and false catholics want to have a fellowship of peace with true
catholics but with this stipulation, that they do not agree to ascend to
the citadel of ecclesiastical faith or duty themselves, but rather they
compel those whom they see dwelling on the peak of the virtues to go
down to the lowest depths of wicked works or dogmas. And it is well
that they want to enter into a pact with Nehemiah on one plain, doubt¬
less because they desire that all those whom they are able to seduce
be relaxed in the same freedom of the broader life that they them¬
selves follow; and it is well that they wish to enter into a pact with him
by together slaughtering calves, because false brethren are eager to
offer the sacrifices of their prayer and action to God together with true
catholics, so that, when they are believed to be genuinely faithful, they
might be able to corrupt these same true catholics through the prox¬
imity of their association. But Nehemiah, representing the person of
faithful teachers, by no means agrees to go down to the impious nor
7925/ to be defiled with their sacrifices but remains devout in the
virtuous works he has undertaken; and the more severely his enemies
tried to frighten him, the more he himself strove to become terrifying
to these same enemies by doing a good work. For this reason, it is said
in what follows:

[6:9] They were all trying to frighten us, scheming that our hands
would cease from the work and that we would rest. For this reason, I
strengthened my hands all the more. Thus in the spiritual edifice too,
because the cunning enemy tries always to obstruct our hands, let us
always take care to strengthen them ourselves in good action with
divine help.

[6:10] And I went into the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son
of Mehetabel, privately. He said, ‘Let us meet together in the house
of God, inside the temple, and let us close the doors of the building,
and so on until it says: I realized that God had not sent him, but that
he had spoken to me as if he had been prophesying, and Tobiah and
Sanaballat had hired him. For he had taken money so that I might be

1 Neh. 6:3.

188

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

frightened into doing this and commit a sin.^ Pressured by the attacks
of his enemies, Nehemiah enters the house of Shemaiah as though
Shemaiah were his friend and brother but discovers that Shemaiah
himself is a traitor and enemy, inasmuch as he had been corrupted by
the gifts and friendship of foreigners. For the elect always have
conflicts without and fears withinf and not just the apostles but the
prophets too lived a life fraught with dangers from the nation, with
dangers from Gentiles, with dangers from false brethren?

[Neh. 6:15] Now the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the
month of Elul, in fifty-two days. According to the Hebrews the month
[363] of Elul is the sixth month of the year, which is called September by the
Romans.'* And it is right that the wall of the holy city is completed in
the sixth month of the year, 7950/ so that by this number the perfected
action of the faithful - whether penitents or the innocent - might also
be designated. For the perfection of a good work is usually designated
by the number six, either because the Lord completed the creation of
the world on the sixth day and rested on the seventh, or because he
wished us to sweat with good actions within the Six Ages of this world
but to hope for a sabbath rest for our souls in the seventh, which comes
in the next life.^ It is rightly completed on the twenty-fifth day of that
same month, namely on account of the five bodily senses, by the aid
of which we ought to do good works outwardly: for just as the simple
number five is often a figure of these senses, so when this number is
multiplied by itself to make twenty-five it designates these same senses
with greater perfection.® Therefore, we complete the wall of Jerusalem
on the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month when, diligently surren¬
dering all of our bodily senses to divine servitude, we bring the pursuits
of the virtues’ which we have begun to a sure end and, with the Lord’s

1 Neh. 6:12-13.

2 2 Cor. 7:5.

3 2 Cor. 11:26.

4 Cf. Bede DTR 11 (313.22).

5 Cf. Augustine De Genesi ad litteram 4.7.16 (CSEL 28:93.1-103.21). On the Six
World Ages, cf. Bede In Ezr. 1.1201-28 and DTR 66-71 (445.1-544.97); on the alle¬
gorical meaning of the number six, cf. Bede De tab. 2 (66.967-67.88), which closely
parallels some of the language of this passage.

6 Gregory Homiliae in Ezechielem 2.5.5 (CCSL 142:278.117-279.147).

7 virtutum studia. A favourite phrase of Bede’s which he may have got from Cassian:
see Bede In Luc. 3 (226.2363-64), which quotes Cassian Conlationes 23.3 (SC 64:141.11),
which contains the phrase; also Epist. Cath. (190.276), In Sam. 4 (269.2442), In Cant. 4.6
(313.548), and In Marc. 2 (494.221) and 3 (562.857; 569.1080).

BOOK THREE

189

help, effectively complete whatever things we have begun to do faith¬
fully in defence of catholic peace.

It is also fitting that the wall is said to have been completed in fifty-
two days.^ For the fiftieth Psalm - in which the prophet also prays
specifically for the construction of this city, saying. Deal favourably,
Oh Lord, in your good will with Zion, that the walls of Jerusalem may
be built up^ - is one of repentance and forgiveness.^ On the fiftieth day
of the Lord’s resurrection, the Holy Spirit, through which not only the
desire to repent is poured into us but also the gift of pardon /975/ is
conferred on those who repent, came to the primitive Church.'* Now
there are two precepts concerning charity, namely love of God and of
neighbour,^ in which, once pardon for sins has been granted to us by
the Holy Spirit, we are commanded to endeavour to attain eternal life.
It is therefore most appropriate that, when rebuilding the wall of the
holy city that had been destroyed by the enemies, its citizens restore
it in fifty-two days, because this, undoubtedly, is the perfection of the
righteous in this life - namely that they should not only, by repenting
through the grace of divine inspiration, set aright whatever sins they
have committed, but afterwards adorn themselves with good works in
love of God and neighbour.

[Neh. 6:16] And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard about
this, that all the nations that were around us were afraid and disheart¬
ened, and they realized that this work had been done by God. Those
who previously were seeking to frighten the builders of the holy city
in order to hinder them from working now are themselves frightened
when the construction of this same city is completed, and they are
disheartened when they realize that its construction was begun and
completed through God’s authority. So too in the Holy Church, when
the sturdy structure of charity, self-restraint, peace, and the rest of the
virtues is erected, unclean spirits grow afraid and their temptation, put
to flight by our strength, is repelled and makes our victory all the
greater. This can be understood to apply equally to heretics and to

1 On the allegorical meaning of the number fifty, cf. Bede Horn. 2.16 (297.270-
299.326).

2 Ps. 51:18 (50:20).

3 Jerome In Esaiam 2.3.3 (CCSL 73:44.9-12). The same link between repentance
and pardon and Psalm 50 is mentioned by Bede also in Exp. Act. 19 (79.74-77), In Luc.
3 (200.1328-33), De tab. 2 (54.473-77), and De tempi. 1 (36.1223-28).

4 Cf. Acts 2:1-4.

5 Cf. Matt. 22:37-40.

[364]

190

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

false catholics, who, through the steadfast faith of good men which
works through love,^ are either set straight and reformed or, having
been exposed so that people can be on their guard against them, are
expelled from the boundaries of the Church.

[Neh. 7:1-2] 71000/ Now after the wall was built, and I had set in place
the doors and appointed the gatekeepers and the singers and the
Levites, I conunanded Hanani my brother, and so on until it says, ‘The
gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened untU the sun is hot’.^ In the
spiritual sense too, whenever the walls of the Church have been built
by gathering new nations to the faith or by setting straight those who
have erred, immediately the doors of regular discipline^ must be set in
place so that the ancient enemy, who prowls around like a roaring lion*
might not in any place be able to invade the fold of the faithful.
Gatekeepers, singers, and Levites must be appointed to guard these
same doors; it is clear that the character of all these accords with holy
teachers. For the gatekeepers are those who have received the keys to
the kingdom of heaven^ so that they might receive those who are
worthy and humble but prevent the proud and the impure from entry
into the heavenly city by saying: You have no part or lot in this busi¬
ness, for your heart is not right before God.^ The singers are those who
with a devout voice preach the sweetness of this same heavenly home¬
land to their hearers; the Levites are those who always remain vigilant
in regard to the observance of divine worship. Now Nehemiah ordered
that The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot
(that is, throughout the whole night), doubtless either in case the
enemy invaded under the cover of darkness or else in case any of the
citizens were to go out incautiously and be captured by the enemy and
killed. Likewise, throughout the night of this age also, guardians of
souls must act diligently to ensure that the observance of devout living
is not neglected, allowing the devil to sneak in to disturb the company
of the faithful or to seize and destroy one of their number. 71025/ But
[365] when the sun of righteousness'^ appears and the light of future blessed-

1 Cf. Gal. 5:6.

2 Neh. 7:3.

3 ‘the doors of regular discipline’ = valuae disciplinae regularis: cf. cf. In Ezr. 1.634-5
and the accompanying note.

4 1 Pet. 5:8.

5 Matt. 16:19.

6 Acts 8:21.

7 Mai. 4:2.

BOOK THREE

191

ness shines forth, no longer will there be a need for barriers of self-
restraint,^ because adversaries will no longer be given the ability to
attack or tempt the faithful, since they will be condemned to eternal
punishment along with their leader. Hence in his Apocalypse John
says about the future glory of the holy city: And its gates will not be
shut ever, for there will be no night in that place}

[Neh. 7:3] ‘And I appointed gnards from among the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, each in his own turn and each opposite his own house’.
Guardians of souls must not be appointed from recent converts or
from the common crowd but from those who, freed by the grace of
God from the battle with the vices, have already trained themselves
to keep their mind in Jerusalem (that is, in the ‘vision of serene peace’)^
and who can say with the Apostle: But our dwelling is in heaven}
About these people it is well said that he appointed each in his own
turn, namely so that when their course has been completed and they
have been removed from this light, others may straightaway be chosen
in their place to rule over the faithful; and that there may at no time
be a shortage of those who make an effort to keep watch on behalf of
the peace of the Holy Church because of night-time fears,^ since the
truth of prophetic word, in which it is said to the same Church, In the
place of your fathers, sons are born to you,^ runs continuously to the
end of the age. It is also well added, and each opposite his own house.
For the guardianship of the Holy Church is duly achieved only if
everyone shows concern for all the faithful but makes a particularly
diligent effort to take care of those over whom he has been put in
charge by God’s authority.

[7:4] 71050/ Now the city was exceedingly wide and great, and there
were few people in the midst of it, and the houses had not been built.

Typologically, these details correspond to that time when, as a result
of God’s word being spread far and wide by the apostles, the whole
world received the new seed of the faith, and when churches had not

1 ‘barriers of self-restraint’ = claustris continentiae: a phrase employed by both
Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos 140.6 (CCSL 40:2029.26) and Gregory Moralia in
Job 6.33.52 (CCSL 143:321.25-26).

2 Rev. 21:25.

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:121.9-10).

4 Phil. 3:20.

5 Song 3:8.

6 Ps. 45:16 (44:17).

192

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

yet been built but the peoples, as yet uninstructed, had merely begun
to hear and receive the sacraments of the word.

[7:5] God put it into my heart, and I assembled the nobles and the offi¬
cials and the common people, that I might make a census of them. And
I found the census book of those who had come up first. When, there¬
fore, not only the nobles and officials but also all the common people
had assembled before him, he diligently endeavoured to make a census
of their number so that, having made a review of the total of all the
people, he might be able to determine which ones should dwell in the
city of Jerusalem itself and which in the other cities.

[Neh. 8:1] And the seventh month had come and the children of Israel
[ 366 ] were in their cities. And all the people assembled as one man in the
square which is before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe
to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had
commanded to Israel. As Nehemiah was seeking to make plans and
decide who should reside in the city which they had built, the seventh
month arrived, for it was not far off. For since the wall had been
completed on the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month, not more than
five days remained until the beginning of the seventh month. The
whole of this seventh month, from its first day until the twenty-second,
was consecrated with ceremonies prescribed by the Law; when these
had been duly celebrated, only then 71075/ did he return with the
leaders and common people to decide who should be residents of the
rebuilt city. The point to note here is the devotion and also the like-
mindedness of the people who as one man (that is, with one and the
same faith and love) came together at the Lord’s temple; and they
themselves asked their pontifex^ to bring the book and recount for
them the commandments of the Law that they must observe, so that
along with the rebuilt city, a structure of good works pleasing to God
might spring up in case, just as before, neglect of religion should lead
to the ruination of the city as well. And it is appropriate that the city
was completed in the sixth month and that the people gathered in it
to hear the law in the seventh; for in the law there are six days for
working and a seventh for resting.^ And this, after we have done good
work, is the form of our rest that is most beloved and most acceptable
to the Lord - to abstain from servile work (that is, from sin) and devote
ourselves to hearing and fulfilling his commandments with due dili-

1 See above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note.

2 Ex. 20:9-11. Cf. Bede De tab. 1 (244.127-28).

BOOK THREE

193

gence3 This is why the Feast of Trumpets, by whose blast the people,
amidst their prayers and offerings, were more fervently moved to
remembrance of the divine law, was placed in the beginning of this
same seventh month also.

Even today too, according to the spiritual meaning, the construc¬
tion of the holy city should be followed by divine reading and the
frequent sounding of trumpets, no doubt because it is necessary that
when a people has been initiated into the heavenly sacraments they
should also, as occasion requires, be carefully instructed by divine
discourses how they should live.^ Now he says that the people assem¬
bled in the square which is before the Water Gate. I think that by the
Water Gate is meant the gate in the courtyard of the priests which
surrounded the temple on all its sides in a square, especially on the
temple’s eastern side where there was 71100/ the Bronze Sea for
washing the hands and feet of those going into the temple,^ the ten
bronze wash-basins for washing the victims,'* and also the altar of holo¬
caust between which and the temple Zechariah son of Berechiah was
stoned to death.^ The people did not have permission to enter inside
the gate of this court but only the priests and ministers of the Lord;
the people were accustomed to stand outside of this gate and espe¬
cially in the square which was at its eastern side, in order to listen to
the word or to pray. Therefore, it is appropriate that the people gath¬
ered before the Water Gate, because they were to be given spiritual
drink by their high-priest® from the streams of the Scriptures.

[Neh. 8:4] And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden step that he had
made to speak upon, and so on until it is said. And Ezra opened the
book before all the people, for he was standing out above all the
people.’ The book of Chronicles appears to mention this place where

1 Cf. Lev. 23:24; also Bede Horn. 1.23 (164.114-165.146).

2 Cf. On the instruction of catechumens, cf. In Ezr. 2.915-27.

3 Bede discusses the Bronze Sea at length in De tempi. 2 (207.605-866).

4 Cf. Bede De tempi. 2 (213.869-222.1208).

5 See Matt. 23:35; cf. Luke 11:51 and 2 Chron. 24:20-21. For more on the altar of
holocaust, see Bede De tab. 2 (76.1361-84.1665).

6 ‘through their high priest’ = per antistitem. Although the context requires that anti-
stitem be translated as ‘high priest’, for Bede and his audience the duties of a bishop
would have likely been called to mind: cf. In Ezr. 2.1587, for Bede’s telling association
of Ezra the pontifex with an archbishop (on which see Introduction, pp. xxxiii-xxxvi).
In fact, the Latin word antistes is still used in the Roman Catholic Mass as a designation
for a bishop.

7 Neh. 8:5.

[367]

194

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

it is said that Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, facing all the
multitude of Israel, and he stretched forth his hands. For Solomon had
made a bronze platform and had set it in the midst of the basilica, and
it was five cubits long and five cubits broad and three cubits high. And
he stood upon iF For ‘in the midst of the basilica’’ means in the midst
of the courtyard of the priests, which surrounded the greater basilica
of the exterior courts on every side of the temple, about which it is
written earlier in the same book, he made the courtyard of the priests,
and a great basilica.^ But Solomon, being a king, made a bronze plat¬
form, whereas Ezra, as a man of lesser power, built a wooden step to
speak upon, 71125/ just as Solomon or Moses also made the altar of
holocaust out of bronze^ and the descendants of the exiles replaced it
with a stone one. But it should not be supposed that the wooden step
holds a less perfect mystery than the bronze scaffold. For, as has often
been said, just as bronze, for the length of time that it endures or for
the sweetness of its sound, corresponds to the divine sacraments which
fail with no passing of the ages and their sound has gone out into all the
earth,'' in the same way wood too fits most aptly with these same sacra¬
ments on account of the trophy of the Lord’s passion. The pontifex,^
therefore, stands out above all the people when he who receives the
rank of teacher rises above the activity of the crowd by the merit of a
more perfect life; but he stands on a wooden step that he had made to
speak upon when he makes himself higher than the rest through excep¬
tional imitation of the Lord’s passion. Hence he deservedly obtains
the trust to preach God’s word freely; for he who disdains to imitate
the Lord’s passion in his own modest way has not yet mounted the
wooden step from where he can stand above the weak, and for that
reason it is necessary that such a scribe must preach the precepts of
God in trepidation, fearing or blushing to propose that others must do
what he has failed to do himself. And so it is aptly added in what
follows:

[Neh. 8:7] And the people stood on their own level. For when those
[368] in charge are eager to outdo their subjects in good works by as much
as they surpass them in honour, then their subjects are incited by their

1 2 Chron. 6:12-13.

2 2 Chron. 4:9. Bede quotes this verse earlier at In Ezr. 2.401-02.

3 Cf. 2 Chron. 4:1; Ex. 38:30;

4Ps. 19;4(18:5).

5 See above In Ezr. 2.890 and the accompanying note.

BOOK THREE

195

good examples and, now devout, they carry out the duties appropriate
to their station in life;^ and admonished by their pious exhortations,
71150/ they delight to pour forth copious tears for the errors they have
committed or even for desire for the heavenly kingdom. Whence at
this point also it is aptly added:

[Neh. 8:9] All the people were weeping when they heard the words of
the law. But because the same holy teachers who move the minds of
their hearers to tears both with holy readings and with their devout
exhortations also assuage those tears when they promise their hearers
that eternal joys are to follow, it is rightly added:

[Neh. 8:10] And he said to them, ‘Go and eat fat food and drink sweet
drink, and send portions to him who did not prepare anything for
himself, because it is the holy day of the Lord, and do not be saddened’.
For it is a holy day of the Lord for us when we take pains to hear and
carry out his words. On this day it is proper that, however much
outwardly we have endured the obstacles of tribulations, we should be
rejoicing in hope,^ in keeping with the Apostle’s saying: As if sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing.^ On this day we are commanded also to eat fat
food and drink sweet drink - that is, to rejoice over the abundance of
good action bestowed on us by God and over the very sweetness of
hearing God’s word. For sweet drink is wine sweetened with honey,
which is why in Greek it is called oivopsAi.'* But from this same most
healthful feast of our mind we are also instructed to send portions to
him who did not prepare anything for himself, namely so that we take
care to strengthen the weaker consciences of our neighbours either by
the example of pious action or by the sweetness of devout advice, in
order that their souls too might, according to the psalmist, be replen¬
ished with an abundance of heavenly blessing as though with fat and
richfood^ and might praise the Lord’s name with exulting lips. Now it
behoves us to imitate this passage even in the literal sense,'^ 71175/
namely so that when on festival days, once our prayer, reading of the
psalms, and studies are complete, we arrange to attend to the needs of
the flesh with food, we should remember to give a portion also to

1 Cf. In Ezr. 3.1396-98.

2 Rom. 12:12.

3 2 Cor. 6:10.

4 Cf. Isidore Etymologiae 20.3.10.

5 Ps. 63:5 (62:6).

6 On the imitation of Scripture’s literal sense, see above, In Ezr. 3.859-65.

196

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

paupers and pilgrims.

[Neh. 8:14-15] And they found written in the Law that the Lord had
conunanded in the hand of Moses, that the children of Israel were to
live in tabernacles during a feast in the seventh month, and that they
should proclaim and spread this word in all their cities and in
Jerusalem, saying: ‘Go out into the mountain and bring back branches
of olive’, and so on. These matters are written about more fully in
Leviticus,^ and it is also written there that they were ordered to be
done in memory of that very long journey, on which the Lord, leading
[369] his people out of Egypt, made them dwell in tabernacles in the desert
for forty years, daily revealing to them the precepts of his Law through
Moses. Moreover it was ordered that the setting up of tabernacles
(which in Greek is called oKrivoTTpyia)^ was to be done every year for
seven days, i.e. from the fifteenth day of the seventh month to the
twenty-second. It is well worth our while to make a thorough
examination of the mystery of this observance through spiritual inves¬
tigation, especially since in the gospel the Lord deigned to attend this
same feast and, as he addressed the people who gathered there, dedi¬
cated it with his most holy words.^ Our fathers too, therefore, were set
free from slavery in Egypt through the blood of a lamb and were led
through the desert for forty years that they might come to the
Promised Land when through the Lord’s passion the world was set
free from slavery to the devil and through the apostles the primitive
church was gathered and was led as it were 71200/ through the desert
for forty years until it came to the homeland promised in heaven,
because in imitation of the forty-day fast which Moses and Elijah and
the Lord himself fulfilled,'* the primitive church used to lead a life of
great continence, thirsting always for its eternal homeland, and having
set itself completely apart from all the distractions of this world,
conducted its life as though in secret in daily meditation on the divine
law.^ In remembrance of this time, we too ought to dwell in taberna¬
cles, leaving our homes'’ - that is, having forsaken the cares and

1 Lev. 23:34-43.

2 Cf. John 7:2 and Ex. 23:16; Isidore Etymologiae 6.18.9. Cf. above In Ezr. 1.1037^4,
1091-97.

3 Cf. John 7:2-14.

4 Cf. Ex. 24:18 and 34:28; Deut. 9:9; 1 Kings 19:8; Matt. 4:2.

5 On the connection between the returnees, the primitive church, and monasticism,
see above In Ezr. 1.624—35 and the accompanying notes.

6 Reading de habitaculis nostris for de tabernaculis nostris: see Appendix 1.

BOOK THREE

197

pleasures of the world, we ought to confess that we are pilgrims in this
life and have our homeland in heaven,^ and desire that we may arrive
there all the more quickly; this too in a holy feast in the seventh month
(i.e. in the light of celestial joy) when the grace of the Holy Spirit, which
was commended by the prophet as sevenfold,^ fills our heart. We are
ordered to remain in these tabernacles for seven days because during
the entire time of this life, which we accomplish in as many days,^ it
behoves us to bear in mind that, like all our fathers, we are dwellers
and pilgrims on earth in the eyes of the Lord.

[Neh. 8:15] ‘Go out’, he says, ‘into the mountain and bring back
branches of olive, and branches of the most beautiful wood, and
branches of myrtle, and boughs of palm and branches of shady wood,
to make tabernacles, as it is written’. Let us too go out from the
dwelling, so to speak, of our general thoughts onto the height of medi¬
tating frequently on the Holy Scriptures and from there let us gather
for ourselves as it were branches of the olive, i.e. the fruits of mercy
with which by restoring the poor 71225/ we shade ourselves from the [370]
heat of tempting vices, and the branches of the most beautiful wood
(which the Jews call ‘cedar’), no doubt the fruits of love, the most beau¬
tiful and most excellent of all the virtues, for the sake of which our
Lord too ascended the wood of the cross for our salvation, and as long
as we imitate his passion as far as is possible, we are assuredly
protected by branches of the most beautiful wood. Let us also bring
myrtle branches in mortification of lusts and all other vices, for the
Magi, by offering myrrh to the Lord, by this gift figuratively taught
that those who are of Jesus Christ should crucify their flesh along with
vices and lusts;'* likewise, whoever can say. For we are the good odour
of Christ to God in every place] gathers myrtle branches to make shade
for himself. Let us also gather boughs of palm which adorn the
conqueror’s hand, so that we may always keep our mind victorious
over gluttony, anger, avarice, and the rest of the vices, and always take
care to be stronger than all our enemies so that in the future we may
deserve to be companions^ of those about whom John says in his

1 Cf. Phil. 3:20.

2 Is. 11:2-3.

3 Cf. In Ezr. 1.1073-4, and the accompanying note.

4 Cf. Gal. 5:24.

5 2 Cor. 2:14-15.

6 mereamur esse consortes: a phrase perhaps borrowed from Regula Benedicti prol.

50 (ed. Fry 166).

198

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Apocalypse: They were standing before the throne in the sight of the
Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands',^
and let us gather branches of shady wood too, that is, the ornaments
of the rest of the virtues. From all of these things we make mystical
tabernacles for ourselves when, delighted by good works, we remove
our entire mind from worldly allurements.

[Neh. 8:16] So the people went out and brought back and made taber¬
nacles for themselves, each man on his dwelling, and in his courtyards,
and in the courtyards of the house of God, and in the square of the
Water Gate, and the square of the Gate of Ephraim. 71250/ ‘On the

dwelling’ means ‘on the roof of the houses’, for in Palestine they do
not have sloping roofs on the houses but the tops of all houses are flat
and covered with beams and boards.^ This is why in the Law it is
commanded that whoever builds a new home should make breast¬
works all round the roof so that no one will fall from it and die.^ And
so each one of us goes out and makes tabernacles on his dwelling (i.e.
on the roof of his home) when, rising by means of the mind above the
abode of his body, he tramples down his harmful emotions with
constant meditation on heavenly light and liberty. We do the same
thing in our courtyards too when, with a mind burning for heavenly
things, we stand as it were outside the world and desire to leave its
dwelling-place as quickly as possible; and we also do this in the court¬
yards of the house of God when, even though we are not yet allowed
to enter the courtyard of the heavenly dwelling, we nonetheless lay the
whole memory and seat of our thought in its vicinity; and we do this
[371 ] in the square of the Water Gate also when, as our heart expands on
the path of God’s commandments,^ just as a stag desires springs of
water, so does our soul desire the living Godf and we do this also in the
square of the Gate of Ephraim (that is, ‘he who bears fruit’ or ‘he who

1 Rev. 7:9.

2 Cf. Bede XXXquaest 13 (305.7-11).

3 Cf. Deut. 22:8.

4 Cf. Cassiodorus Expositiopsalmorum 50.19 (CCSL 97:467.607), for the phrase ‘seat
of thought’ (cogitationis sedes).

5 ‘as our heart expands on the paths of God’s commandments’ = dilatato corde nostro
in via mandatorum Dei. Cf. the similar phraseology of Regida Benedicti prol. 49 (ed. Fry
164): dilatatio corde inenarrabili dilectionis didcedine curritur via mandatorum Dei ‘...we
shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inex¬
pressible delight of love’ (trans. Fry 165). But cf. also Ps. 119:32 (118:32).

6 Ps. 42:1-2 (41:2-3).

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199

is growing’)^ when we advance in the same fullness of a free heart to
such an extent that, after the gates of righteousness have been opened
for us by the Lord, we always grow to salvation^ in him and merit to
abound every day with greater fruits of good action.

[Neh. 8:18] And he read from the Book of the Law of God each day,
from the first day untU the last; and they celebrated the feast for seven
days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the cnstom, there was
an assembly. The literal 71275/ sense is clear to this extent: the Feast
of Tabernacles^ itself was customarily celebrated for seven days (i.e.
from the fifteenth moon of the seventh month to the twenty-first);
then, on the eighth day (i.e. the twenty-second day of the month), a
second assembly of the people was held, an assembly notable for its
greater festivity. For it is written in Leviticus: From the fifteenth day
of the seventh month, when you have gathered in all the crops of your
land, you shall celebrate a festival of the Lord for seven days; on the
first day and on the eighth there will be a sabbath, that is a day of rest.
And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the fruits of the most
beautiful tree,* and so on. Therefore, for the seven days of the Feast of
Tabernacles, Ezra read to the people from the Book of the Law of
God, doubtless because this is our true feast of the mind in this life -
that each day (i.e. through all the good works by which we are illumi¬
nated by the Lord), we should make time for reading, hearing, and
performing his words with a resolute heart. But this Feast begins ‘on
the fifteenth day of the month when the moon is at its fullest in the
evening’^ when all the obscurities of our mind are dispersed by the
most luminous light of Christ; and the eighth day of the sabbath (i.e.
of rest) follows it - namely, at the moment of our resurrection in the
life to come by whose joys in our present life we are uplifted in hope,
but which we will then enjoy in reality when that most longed-for*"
gathering, the whole assembly of the saints (both of angels and of
human beings), having been gathered in their Creator’s sight, and
never to be separated, will rejoice.

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:65.26).

2 Cf. 1 Pet. 2:2.

3 Cf. Bede In Ezr. 1.1036-37.

4 Lev. 23:39-40.

5 Jerome In Zachariam 3.14.16 (CCSL76A:895.690-1).

6 Reading exoptatissima for exoptissima: see Appendix 1.

200

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[9:1-2] On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the children of Israel
came together with fasting and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.
And the seed of the children of Israel separated themselves from every
foreigner, and so on. 71300/ One should note the devotion of the people
reformed after the captivity: when the feast which had been
commanded by the Lord’s Law had been duly completed, after just
one day’s intermission, they immediately came together of their own
accord with fasting and with repentance, and diligently carried out
[372] what on the days of sacred readings and rejoicing they had heard must
be done by separating themselves in both mind and body from the
fellowship of those who were proven to be alienated from the Lord
and his worship, lest through the association and examples of the
wicked they should again fall into the evils of captivity and hardship
which, they discerned, they had just at that time barely escaped after
long revolutions of times and ages. And what are we to reflect on
mystically about these matters except that, following the examples of
such people, whatever we have learnt in a public meeting or reading^
should be done, we should reflect on again with mutual discussion
among ourselves, and we should search out with careful scrutiny the
ways we can fulfil each duty with the reproof of our heart or body. The
immense industry of their more reformed life is proven when it is
added:

[Neh. 9:3] And they rose up to stand, and they read from the Book of
the Law of the Lord their God four times a day, and four times at night
they confessed and prayed to the Lord their God. For who would not
be amazed that such a great people had such extraordinary concern
for devotion that four times a day - that is, at the first hour of the
morning, the third, the sixth and the ninth, when time was to be made
for prayer and psalmody - they gave themselves over to listening to
the divine law in order to renew their mind in God and come back
purer and more devout for imploring his mercy; but also four times a
night they would shake off their sleepiness 71325/ and get up in order

1 in publica synaxi vet auditorio. The Greek noun synaxis (from sunagein ‘to bring
together’) means ‘a gathering’ or ‘an assembly’ (Souter, s.v. ‘synaxis’) and is related to
the word ‘synagogue’, i.e. a place where gatherings are held. Early Christian writers,
however, used it in reference to any assembly of a religious nature, such as the Mass
and, particularly in monastic contexts, the Office, e.g. Cassian Conlationes 8.16 (SC
54:23.10); Benedict Regula Benedicti 17.7 (ed. Fry 212). For orientation, see Dix 1945:
36-47. Presumably auditorium in this context means ‘listening to something read from
Scripture’: cf. below In Ezr. 1.1331.

BOOK THREE

201

to confess their sins and to beg pardon. From this example, I think, a
most beautiful custom has developed in the Church, namely that
through each hour of daily psalmody a passage from the Old or New
Testament is recited by heart^ for all to hear, and thus strengthened by
the words of the apostles or the prophets, they bend their knees to perse¬
verance in prayer, but also at night, when people cease from the labours
of doing good works, they turn willing ears to listen to divine readings.^

[Neh. 9:6] And Ezra said, ‘You yourself, Oh Lord, you alone made the
heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all that
is on it, and so on up until the end of his prayer or confession. It was
said above that they were confessing their sins and the sins of their
fathers; here, when Ezra prays, it is shown more fully how this was
done. But where he says at the end,

[Neh. 9:38] ‘Because of all this, therefore, we ourselves are making a
covenant and writing it down, and our leaders, our Levites and our
priests are signing it’, and so on, it is shown more clearly with what
gracious devotion all the various persons made a new assembly after
the Feast of Tabernacles, namely so that, after purging themselves
with resolved purpose from the contagions of their wrong-doings, they [373]
might unite themselves to the divine covenant and confirm its terms
both by word and in writing. Thus separated from association with the
ungodly, they would more confidently complete the work they began
long ago, i.e. namely to choose citizens from among the devout who
were suitable for the rebuilt city.

[Neh. 10:1] Those who signed it were Nehemiah, Athersatha^ son of

1 ex corde dicatur. the phrase echoes Regula Benedicti 9.10 (ed. Fry 204), which treats
the scriptural readings for the Night Office. Placed after the psalmody, these were brief
and repeated often so that the monks could memorize them. See DeGregorio 2005:
357-59 for further comment.

2 The Christian custom of reading from Scripture after the psalmody did indeed
derive, as Bede gathers, from Jewish practice. In the ancient synagogue, Jews recited
psalms and read from the Torah and the Prophets on such occasions as sabbaths, festi¬
vals and fast days (cf. Luke 4:15; Acts 13:27, 15:21). In its Sunday celebration of the
Eucharist, the early Christian Church followed this precedent, supplementing it with
readings from the New Testament as well, and this, in turn, provided the core frame¬
work for the early monastic Office, which placed readings from the prophets and
apostles after the recitation of the psalms during morning and evening prayer: see, for
example, Regula Benedicti 9-19 (ed. Fry 202-16). For discussion of these developments,
see Dix 1945: 37-40, 470-72; Jungmann 1959: 278-87; and Vogel 1986: 301-03.

3 This word, quoted in Book 1 at Ezra 2:63, is not a name, as Bede appears to think,
but a Persian title (in Hebrew hattirsdta) meaning ‘the Governor’.

202

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Hacaliah. 71350/ Another translation^ has ‘Nehemiah who is
Athersatha’, for Nehemiah had two names, which is why it is also
specifically added, son of Hacaliah. This same point is suggested more
clearly above when it is said: And Nehemiah (he is Athersatha), Ezra
the scribe, and the Levites who interpreted to all the people, said, ‘This
day is sacred to the Lord our God’.^

[Neh. 10:31] And if the peoples of the land bring in things to sell or
any things of use on the sabbath day to seU them, we wiU not buy from
them on the sabbath or on any holy day. We too should always keep
a spiritual sabbath, should always take a rest from servile work (i.e.
sin), should always make time for and consider that the Lord himself
is God,^ so that after such a sabbath, when we have been freed from
the sins of conscience, we may come to the sabbath of future glory in
heaven."* But the peoples of the land seek a way to profane our sabbath
by bringing in all sorts of things to sell us on the holy day because
unclean spirits try hard to pollute the cleanness of our heart,^ and once
they have received the payment of our consent, they heap on us the
enticements of the vices in order to defile the day of greatest holiness,
i.e. to darken the light of our devout thought or action with the sins
they have sent in. But we should entirely shun merchandise of this sort
with the walls of our closed-off city, i.e. with the protection of a more
perfected life.

[Neh. 10:32] And we will make ordinances for ourselves, to give the
third part of a shekel every year for the work of the house of our God,

1 ‘Another translation’ = Alia translatio. Corresponding neither to Esdras A (which
does not contain this section of Nehemiah) nor to the Old Latin of the Vercelli manu¬
script (which reads et supersignantes neemias filius athali et sedecias filius sereas - fol.
118v, col. 2), this variant may be one Bede found in the work of a previous writer, or
possibly one he obtained from Jerome’s hexaplaric text of Esdras B, if indeed he had
access to it in the Codex Grandior: see Introduction, pp. xix-xxi.

2 Neh. 8:9.

3 Ps. 46:10 (45:11).

4 Cf. Augustine Tractatus in evangelium loannis 44.9 (CCSL 36:385.10-14). In a
homily, Bede distinguishes the ‘spiritual sabbath’ further as follows: ‘Indeed by the
fleshly sabbath, which was kept according to the letter, the people were ordered to keep
free from all servile work on the seventh day. [The meaning of] the spiritual sabbath, in
the light of the sevenfold spiritual grace which we have received, is that we should
remain on holiday from the unrest of the vices not only on one day, but every day’ -
Horn. 1.23 (164.114-19), trans. Martin and Hurst 1:226.

5 Cf. Prov. 22:11.

BOOK THREE

203

and so on until they say, and we wiU not forsake the house of our Godd

All these matters which 71375/ are contained in this chapter are rele¬
vant to the care of the Lord’s house and his ministers and services, and
this excellent order of religious life ought to be imitated by us too in
a spiritual manner today, namely that first the descendants of the exiles
purified themselves from the pollution caused by the Gentiles, then
they were sanctified by keeping the sabbath (which stood prominently
among the first commandments of the Law)^ and only then did they
turn all their attention to carrying out the observance of divine worship
in other respects - for we must first be cleansed from evils and only [374]
then equip ourselves for good works. However, it would take quite a
long time to discuss allegorically in what order we must carry out each
of these in a spiritual manner with respect to the worship of the Lord,
and this should be done rather^ in the Book of the Law itself.

[Neh. 11:1] Now the rulers of the people settled iu Jerusalem, but the
rest of the people cast lots to briug oue part of every tea to live iu the
holy city Jerusalem, while the remaiuiug uiue parts were to stay iu their
owu cities. The arrangement was now completed. It was begun as soon
as the city was made, but until the total number of the people had been
counted and the feast of the seventh month had been completed, it
was impossible to determine who should reside in the holy city itself
and who in the other cities. Now it is consistent with the figures of the
sacraments that the rulers of the people are reported to have settled
in Jerusalem. For it is proper that those in charge of the Holy Church
should surpass the common people in the merits of their life by as much
as they surpass them in the greatness of their power.^ For the
remaining cities of Israel represent the devout lifestyle of the common
people of God, whereas the act of settling 71400/ in Jerusalem specif¬
ically represents the conduct of those who, having already overcome
the struggle of the vices, draw near to the vision of heavenly peace^

1 Neh. 10:39.

2 Cf. Ex. 20:8.

3 Reading magis for magni: see Appendix 1.

4 By ‘Book of the Law’ Bede evidently means the Pentateuch. His point at the end
of this sentence appears to be that the most appropriate place for an extended discus¬
sion of the allegorical meaning of the commandments of the Law would be a
commentary on the Pentateuch, rather than one on Ezra-Nehemiah.

5 Cf. In Ezr. 3.1145-48.

6 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:121.9-10).

204

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

with an unimpeded mind, according to the psalmist’s saying: The Lord
loves the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob} Hence it
follows that the reason that a tenth part of the people chosen by lot
take their dwelling in Jerusalem but the remaining nine parts reside in
their cities is doubtless that it is a mark of the perfect (namely of those
who wholly keep the precepts of the Decalogue in the love of God and
neighbour) to draw near in mind to the heavenly secrets and, so to
speak, to imitate the peace of highest blessedness amidst the whirl¬
winds of this transient life; and yet the door to eternal life also remains
open to those who keep God’s general commandments, according to
what the Lord declares in the Gospel to the rich man who questioned
him.^ For such people dwell as it were in cities given to them by the
Lord because by keeping the sacred law they remain constantly vigi¬
lant to defend themselves from the attacks of the ancient enemy. But
those who wish to be perfect and follow the Lord by selling all their
belongings and giving them as alms for the poor^ are those who dwell
as it were in the citadel of Jerusalem* and next to the temple of God
and the ark of the covenant because they approach the grace of their
Creator in a more sublime way. It is well said that their dwelling in the
holy city was granted to them not by the foresight of human choice but
by the outcome of a lot, just as during Joshua’s time the ownership of
the rest of the cities was given to the children of Israel by lot,^ no doubt
because both the small things of the small man and the great things of
[375] the great man 71425/ come about not through the freedom or indus¬
triousness of his own will but by the gift of the hidden judge and
provider.

[Neh. 11:2] And the people blessed the men that willingly offered
themselves to settle in Jernsalem. We too should make the sublime
life of the elect, which we cannot follow by imitating it, ours by praising
and venerating it.® It should be noted according to the true record of
sacred history that there were no others who are said to have settled
in Jerusalem than those who were from the tribe of Judah and

1 Ps. 87:2 (86:2).

2 Cf. Matt. 19:17.

3 Cf. Matt. 19:21.

4 1 Macc. 13:49.

5 Cf. Josh. 1:6. On the division of the land by ‘lot’, see above, In Ezr. 1.356-59 and
the accompanying note.

6 On the veneration of the saints, cf. above. In Ezr. 2.1118-28.

BOOK THREE

205

Benjamin and the Levitesd For it clearly goes on:

[Neh. 11:3] And every one settled on his own property in their cities:
Israel, priests, Levites, Nathinnites, and descendants of the servants of
Solomon, and then it adds: And in Jernsalem there settled some of the
children of Jndah and Benjamin,^ and so on. By these words it is clearly
taught that all Israel (i.e. the ten tribes) were dwelling in their cities,
in which even the priests and the Levites used to retain a share decreed
to them by the Law.^ By contrast, those who had been chosen by lot
from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin were dwelling in Jerusalem
along with some from the priestly and levitical tribe. For the tribe of
Benjamin used to live there from ancient times because that city
succeeded to it by lot,"^ whereas the tribe of Judah entered there from
the time of David when he made it the capital of the whole Israelite
kingdom,^ and the tribe of Levi was added to them from the time when
the ark of the covenant was brought to that place'^ and God’s altar and
temple built. Consider too the following verses of this book and you
will find that it calculates the inhabitants of Jerusalem from these
tribes alone and even precisely adds the sum of all of them.’ But when
71450/ the catalogue of these ends. Scripture still took pains to add in
which cities the other part of these same tribes settled, for it goes on:
[Neh. 11:25] Some of the children of Judah settled in Kiriath and its
daughters, and so on until it says. And they made their home in
Beersheba as far as the Valley of Hinnom.® For Beersheba was the
boundary of Judah on the southern side, whereas the valley of the
descendants of Hinnom was to the north next to Jerusalem on the east
side.^ Finally, the cities of the descendants of Benjamin are recounted
in a similar order, and the sentence which is added after they have been
counted,

1 Jerusalem belonged to the tribe of Benjamin by lot - see above, In Ezr. 1.356-59
- and to Judah by conquest - see below, In Ezr. 3.1443^6.

2 Neh. 11:4.

3 Rather than receive their own territories, the priestly tribe had permission to dwell
on the territories allotted to the other tribes: cf. above. In Ezr. 1.356-59 and the accom¬
panying note.

4 Cf. Josh. 18:28.

5 Cf. 2 Sam. 5:6-12.

6 Cf. 2 Sam. 6:1-15.

7 Cf. Neh. 11:4-19.

8 Neh. 11:30.

9 The Hinnom Valley is in fact not on the east, but to the south and west of Jerusalem.
Evidently Bede confused its position with that of the Kidron Valley: see May 2001: 81.

206

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[Neh. 11:36] And of the Levites portions of Judah and Benjamin,

[376] means that the Levites according to the decree of the law received a
lot on the property of the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. Let this
much be said briefly concerning the historical sense. Concerning all
these matters, if it delights you to hear also some allegorical meaning
which is appropriate for our actions, Judah is interpreted as ‘he who
confesses’, Benjamin ‘the son of the right hand’, and Levi ‘accepted’.^
The reason that the tribes of all of these dwell partly in Jerusalem and
partly in cities given to them by God is that the stages of progress of
the faithful are many and diverse,^ and for them there are also many
mansions in our Father’s house in heaven,^ as we have taught above.‘^
Some are content to observe God’s general commandments - not to
commit murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to speak false
testimony against a neighbour, to honour father and mother, and to
love neighbours as themselves^ - others try to lay hold of the narrower
stronghold of the perfect life, yet they all, each man according to his
own calling, 71475/ praise and confess the grace of their Creator, and
they are children of the everlasting kingdom which is in his right hand
and are taken up by him to life when the moment of that separation
will come in which Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and
the other left behind. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will
be taken and the other left behind.^

[Neh. 12:1] Now these are the priests and Levites^ who went up with
Zerubbabel son of Sheaitiel and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, and so on.

Here leaders of the priests are described together with their brethren
(i.e. the lesser priests and Levites), those ones who came up from the
Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel and Jeshua son of Jehozadak.
Once these have been set forth, there are also added those who, from

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:152.15; 62.24; 68.7-8); cf. Gregory
Homiliae in Ezechielem 2.10.15 (CCSL 142:390.368).

2 Cf. Bede Horn. 1.17 (120.37-46).

3 Cf. John 14:2.

4 Cf. In Ezr. 3.755-66.

5 Cf. Matt. 19:17-19; Mark 10:19.

6 Matt. 24:40-41.

7 Interestingly, the phrase ‘Now these are the priests and Levites’ {Hi autem sacer-
dotes et levitae) was omitted by the scribe of the Codex Amiatinus. That Bede’s text has
this line shows, then, that he was not relying upon the text of Amiatinus alone, as his
mention of ‘our copies’ {nostri codices) at In Ezr. 3.251-53 evidently suggests: see
Introduction, pp. xviii-xix.

BOOK THREE

207

this time until the beginning of the kingdom of the Macedonians,
succeeded each other in turn to the leadership of the priesthood. For
there follows:

[Neh. 12:10-11] Jeshua begot Joiakim, Joiakim begot Eliashib,
Eliashib begot Joiada, Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot
Jaddna. In fact, Josephus writes that Jaddua, who was the last of these,
was the high priest in the time of Alexander the Great, and when
Jaddua with his brethren met him, Alexander received him humbly
and with honour. Josephus, who spells his name ‘Jaddus’, says that he
was the father of the high priest Onias,^ who is mentioned in the Book
of Maccabees.^ This is not to say that Nehemiah, the author of this
book, could have lived right up to those times in the flesh, but that he
knew Jaddua when he was an infant, and Jaddua could have reached
the rank of the priesthood long after Nehemiah’s death. For at the end
of this book^ too mention is made of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib,
to the effect that /1500/ one of these was the son-in-law of Sanballat [377]
the Horonite, though the name of this son-in-law is not recorded. But
because this Joiada is the grandfather of Jaddua, it is clear that the son-
in-law who is mentioned was either Jaddua’s father or paternal uncle,
and so he could have been born when Nehemiah was still alive.

[Neh. 12:12] And in the days of Joiakim, these were the priests and
heads of the families: of Seraiah’s family, Meraiah, and so on. After
the succession of the high priests has been described, a catalogue of
the lesser priests and Levites who existed in their time is also added
so that we may know that after a large number of citizens were gath¬
ered in Jerusalem, there was also an excellent and most noble assembly
of priests and Levites sufficient to provide for the services of the
temple and altar, to confess and praise God, for the guardianship of
the temple and city, and to educate the people. And it was not done
without the understanding of a more sacred mystery that the rebuilt
city of Jerusalem deserved a greater multitude of citizens in every rank
and order than it is ever said to have lost when the enemy was attacking
and destroying it. For in the same way the Holy Church often receives
greater gains from her losses when, by one person’s lapse through care¬
lessness into sin, many are frightened by his example and become more
careful to continue steadfastly in the purity of the faith; often these

1 Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae 11.8.1-7.

2 1 Macc. 12:7.

3 Cf. Neh 13:28.

208

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

same people who have sinned begin, after they have done penance, to
bear greater fruits of good works than they used to bear before the
invasion of sin; often, when the Church has been ravaged by heretics
and after she recovers the light of truth through the perseverance of
catholic teachers, 71525/ she has given birth to more sons in order that
they might come to know and uphold the reason of this same truth
which has been restored. For never would the blessed Fathers
Athanasius, Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine and others like them have
composed so many and such splendid treatises on Holy Scripture if so
much manifold error of heretics had not arisen against the true faith.
But as long as heretics were striving to build their falsehood onto the
testimonies of the Scriptures, the Fathers from the opposite side were
forced to refute them by the authority of these same Scriptures and to
discuss how the words of these should be understood rightly. We too,
by re-reading these writings of theirs today, receive as it were more
vigilant guardians at the gates and vestibules of the holy city and
temple and more numerous servants for the office of the altar and
sacrifices of the Lord, because through their sayings we are educated
for the guardianship of the faith and of good works and for serving
attentively in the sight of the divine majesty.^ This also can be under¬
stood mystically concerning the persecution by the Gentiles by which
[378] the Holy Church was very often shaken: for though with the killing of
the martyrs she seemed to be on the point of complete destruction, she
was built up even better when they were crowned in secret. As mirac¬
ulous happenings shone forth after their death, even more people
would flock to the profession of the faith until the very pinnacle of the
worldly empire also agreed to submit its neck to Christ’s most agree¬
able yoke,^ so that the state of the holy city (i.e. Christ’s Church), which
had long been assaulted by unbelieving kings, was at last aided and
propagated by the perseverance of believing kings and rulers of this
world, just as the kings 71550/ of the Chaldeans (whose name means
‘ferocious’ or ‘like demons’)^ destroyed the city of Jerusalem but the
kings of the Persians (who are said to mean ‘tempted’)'* restore it with

1 The idea that heretics and the heresies they expound actually serve a providential
role by prompting believers to investigate and understand the truths of the faith more
deeply in order to defend them is implied by St Paul (1 Cor. 11:19) and stated explicitly
by Augustine: see Enarrationes in Psalmos 9.20 (CCSL 38:68.16-22).

2 Cf. Matt. 11:30.

3 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:64.22-23).

4 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72: 129.18).

BOOK THREE

209

friendly provision and exalt it with due honour.

[Neh. 12:27] At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought
out the Levites from all of their places, to bring them to Jerusalem,

and so on. The city had been built long before but it was not proper
that it be dedicated before the inhabitants had been gathered and
ministers suitable for the temple and guardians for the gates and
vestibules had been appointed. The holy city, after being built, is dedi¬
cated when, after the number of the elect is completed at the end of
the world, the Church in its entirety is introduced in heaven to the sight
of her Creator, and whenever in this life we are uplifted with desire
for that future life, it is as if we are rejoicing over the future dedica¬
tion of our city. Hence this same dedication also can be interpreted in
a twofold way, namely at the present time in the hope of those who
desire and purify the eyes of their heart so that they can see God, but
then in the reality of blessed men in spiritual bodies who enjoy a vision
of God amidst hosts of angelic spirits.

[Neh. 12:27] They sought out, it says, Levites from all their places, to
briug them to Jerusalem aud to celebrate the dedicatiou with joy aud
thauksgiviug, aud with soug, ou cymbals, harps, aud lyres. Spiritual
Levites (that is, those who have been elected to the lot of the kingdom)
are sought out too from all their places when the Son of Man will send
his angels and will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends
71575/ of the earth to the ends ofheavenf and they celebrate the dedi¬
cation with joy and song and thanksgiving and various kinds of musical
instruments when they will rejoice each in their turn in the partaking
of eternal life, giving thanks to him by whose gift they merited to enter
that city; while the cymbals, harps, and lyres can be understood as the
very bodies of the righteous already then immortal, through which
they will give back the sweetest sounds of their praise to the Lord. But
in the present life too the Levites are gathered in Jerusalem when the [379]
faithful, aflame with the memory of celestial peace, place the full
delight of their mind in this peace^ and rejoice over that eternal inher¬
itance in heaven which they hope they are going to receive - even
though they are not yet able to - by contemplating it or at least desiring
it, according to that saying of the psalmist: Rejoice, oh you just, in the

1 Mark 13:27.

2 Jerusalem = ‘vision of peace’: see Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL
72:121.9-10).

210

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Lord, and confess to the remembrance of his holiness} For they cele¬
brate the dedication with song and thanksgiving when with a mind
rejoicing in the Lord they welcome whatever has happened in the
world, be it adverse or favourable; they celebrate too with cymbals,
harps and lyres when they cause the pleasing sounds of good works to
ascend to the ears of their Creator and when they also enkindle the
hearts of their neighbours with these to the love of this Creator and
Saviour.

[Neh. 12:28] The descendants of the singers therefore were brought
together from the plains around Jerusalem and out from the villages
of Netophathites, and so on until it says, for the singers had built
villages for themselves in sight oF Jerusalem.^ The descendants of the
singers are people who imitate those who, with a devout and cheerful
mind, strive to serve the Lord or even 71600/ to make his word resound
by preaching to others. They make villages for themselves around
Jerusalem when with an exalted heart they dwell in the vicinity of the
celestial homeland, saying: But our dwelling is in heavenf and they
make these villages in the plains around Jerusalem when the more they
humble themselves with their heart laid open to God,^ the more
sweetly do they come to taste the glory of his sublimity. All of them
both now, by their progress in good works, individually gather at the
celestial homeland, and also at the time of dedication (that is, of
perpetual reward) are found there all together.

[Neh. 12:30] And the priests and Levites were purified, and they puri¬
fied the people and the gates and the wall. It is an altogether just
sequence of events that the teachers and leaders who desire to cleanse
the people should first be purified themselves, that is, they should first
of all chasten their own body and bring it into subjection,® in case when
preaching to others they themselves are found to be at fault. Now the
priests and Levites were purified with prayers and offerings of victims
and also by abstaining from wives, they purified the people by
preaching the same continence, and they also purified the gates and

1 Ps. 97:12 (96:12).

2 ‘in the sight of = in conspectu, which is likely a corruption for in circuitu, ‘around’,
which Bede writes just below at line 1600.

3 Neh. 12:29.

4 Phil. 3:20.

5 dilatato in Deum corde\ cf. Regida Benedicti Prol. 49 (ed. Fry 164), where the phrase
dilatato corde is used.

6 Cf. 1 Cor. 9:27.

BOOK THREE

211

the wall with trumpets and singing of psalms and as they went around
the people accompanied them; they purified the people together with
themselves and the gates and the wall, after completing a circuit, by
offering great victims for the state of the citizens and of the city at the [380]
same time. Similarly nowadays, the more those who rule over the
common people with holy authority and have been chosen by the Lord
for the spiritual ministry remember our dedication, which is in the
future resurrection, the more eagerly 71625/ they strive to purify and
sanctify both themselves and all those under their charge, in case by
chance anyone is found to have an impure state of mind and is driven
out from the common joy of the holy ceremony and cast into the outer
darkness with hands and feet bound.^

[Neh. 12:31] And I made the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall,
and I assigned two large choirs of people giving praise. And they went
to the right on top of the wall, towards the Dung Gate. The leaders of
Judah (i.e. ‘confession’ or ‘praise’)^ are all those more perfect teachers
of the Holy Church who at the dedication of the city go up on top of
the wall because when the time of retribution appears, they will be
proven to have risen above the ordinary life of the Holy Church by
their more exalted manner of living. For they are the ones concerning
whom the Lord promises this Holy Church through the prophet,
saying: I have posted guardians on your walls? Hence it is just that
those today who have been placed in the office of watchman over the
Holy Church’s walls will at that time also be distinguished by the glory
of this same reward. Two large choirs of those who praise are assigned
there because they come from both people (namely Jews and
Gentiles) in order to praise God in the heavenly homeland. Any
learned person knows that this is done today in the present life as well.

These choirs proceed to the right on top of the wall because the right¬
eous, by living rightly, both in the present are always hastening
towards everlasting life and arrive there in the future. They proceed
towards the Dung Gate in the present in order to purge the filth of sins
from the Church by living more correctly and by setting straight the
wayward, 71650/ whereas they will do this in the future in order, by
their judicial power, to drive out from the Lord’s city (i.e. from the
entrance of the heavenly homeland) those who have been unwilling

1 Cf. Matt. 22:13.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:67.19).

3 Is. 62:6.

212

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

to be corrected; or perhaps the choirs of those who praise, moving to
the right, climb on top of the wall towards the Dung Gate whenever
they preach that those people are worthy of praise who have taken
care to eliminate all impurity from the Church by preaching, refuting,
excommunicating, and anathematizing.

[Neh. 12:35] And of the sons of the priests, with trumpets, Zechariah
son of Jonathan, and so on until it says, with the musical instruments
of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe before them at the Spring
[381 ] Gated In this life too the sons of the priests sound their trumpets for
the dedication of God’s city because by preaching they enkindle the
hearts of their hearers to remembrance of the celestial homeland; and
they do this with the musical instruments of David the man of God
when, supported not by their own thought or desires but following the
life and teaching of the Fathers and Prophets in everything, they perse¬
vere in the word of preaching. Ezra the scribe of God’s Law goes
before them to the Spring Gate when in everything they do they have
before their eyes the words of Sacred Scripture so that, constantly
guided by these, they can arrive at the entrance of eternal life about
which the psalmist says to the Lord: They shall be inebriated with the
plenty of your house, and you shall make them drink of the torrent of
your pleasure. For with you is the spring of life.^

[Neh. 12:37] And they went up against them by the steps of the City
of David for the ascent of the wall above the house of David and as
far as the Water Gate on the east. Above, when the city was being
rebuilt, it was said that the ones who built the Water Gate 71675/
continued the extent of their work as far as the steps that come down
from the city of David.^ Thus at the time of building it talks of the
descent of the steps, whereas here, at the time of the city’s dedication,
it talks of an ascent, just as also the former was a time of toil and strife
with the enemy, while this was a time of joyous celebration after the
enemy had been defeated, doubtless because all the saints who are
humbled in this life will under God’s powerful hand be exalted by him
in the future;"^ those who now build the walls of the Church on earth
from living stones (namely, from holy souls) amidst affliction, dangers,
and many vigils, afterwards, when the building has been completed

1 Neh. 12:36.

2 Ps. 36:9-10 (35:9-10).

3 Neh. 3:15.

4 1 Pet. 5:6.

BOOK THREE

213

and raised to the kingdom of heaven, themselves ascend rejoicing in
order to contemplate his brilliance. Now the House of David (i.e. he
‘of the strong hand’ and the ‘desirable one’)^ represents all the right¬
eous, who are wont to be filled with the grace of their Founder and to
be inhabited by him, and the sons of the priests go up above the House
of David when holy preachers or martyrs, just as they now rise above
the ordinary lifestyle of the righteous either through the ministry of
the word or through the struggle of martyrdom, so at that time they
will surpass the general rewards of those people through the gift of a
higher remuneration. Fully in keeping with these people is that parable
of the faithful servants, when one of whom says, ‘Master, your pound
has earned ten pounds’, the master replies, ‘Well done, good servant!
Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you shall have
control over ten cities’, and when the other one says, ‘Master, your
pound has earned five pounds’, and the master answers, ‘You also shall
have control over five cities’? For however many people each person
now instructs to life whether by his word or example, for these many
will each be honoured and appear more glorious at the time when that
life is attained. The priests also at last arrive at the Water Gate 71700/ [382]

to the east when those who in this present life, just as a stag desires
springs of water,^ in the same way have desired to come and to be
present before God, achieve their desire and deserve to see the sun of
righteousness^ rising without ever setting. Now, the words And they
went up against them, do not signify opposition or apartness, but
meeting or harmony, that harmony with which the elect even in this
life enkindle each other to the love of their Creator and in that life
more perfectly praise him for ever without tiring, rejoicing together
each in turn in their blessedness, in keeping with the example of the
Seraphim which, as the prophet attests, cry to each to the other and
celebrate the Holy Trinity with shared exultation.^

[Neh. 12:37] And the second choir of those giving praise went in the
opposite direction. I and half of the people foUowed them upon the
wall, and upon the Tower of the Ovens, and so on. It would take a long
time to discuss all the gates and towers individually. Fet it suffice to

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:103.11).

2 Luke 19:16-19.

3 Ps. 42:1 (41:2).

4 Cf. Mai. 4:2.

5 Cf. Is. 6:2-3, Rev. 4:8; cf. Rev. 5:11-14 and 7:9-17.

214

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

have said that those who completed the gates, towers and city wall
amidst great toil, hardship, famine, cold, vigils by day and night while
the tireless enemy fights against and assails them, afterwards, once the
enemy have been beaten back and thrown into disarray, go walking
together through the gates, towers, and buildings of this city and
rejoice with songs, hymns, harps, cymbals, lyres, and trumpets and
thanksgivings together with those very teachers who were the authors
of the project and the teachers of God’s Law. No one can doubt that,
in the same sequence, this takes place in the spiritual building too
when, as the hour of final retribution approaches as though it were the
long-desired 71725/ dedication of God’s city, the faithful obtain eternal
rewards for their works when, much like Nehemiah and Ezra and the
other priests and Levites as they each bring forth their workers, all the
teachers of faithful peoples conduct their listeners whom they have
acquired for the Lord into the fortifications of the heavenly home¬
land.^ Then, as well as the other fortifications of the holy city,
Nehemiah also walks with his choir of praisers over the Tower of the
Ovens in whose structure they once used to sweat, when teachers of
the truth rejoice over the sublime rewards of those whom they have
taught. For if the loaves of the furnace which are baked in secret signify
the inward devotion of the mind of the faithful which is strengthened
by the fire of love, which is why such loaves were also commanded by
the Law to be offered as a sacrifice to the Lord,^ what could be more
aptly figured by the ovens in which these loaves are baked than their
very hearts which are accustomed always to burn with the flame of
[383] inner love and to beget deeds or words of the virtues? The prophet
speaks of this beautifully: The Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his
furnace is in Jerusalem,^ and likewise he says of himself. Was not our
heart burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened
the Scriptures to us?'^ On the other hand, the hearts of the condemned
also burn like this, but in the fire of their sins, which is why another
prophet says about them. They are all adulterers, their hearts like an
oven} Therefore, among other things, the builders of the holy city
build the Tower of the Ovens when teachers educate the hearts of their

1 Cf. Bede Horn. 2.24 (364.240-365.247).

2 Cf. Lev. 2:4.

3 Is. 31:9.

4 Luke 24:32.

5 Hosea 7:4.

BOOK THREE

215

hearers in the faith and work of truth so that they might become
worthy to receive the greater gifts of the Spirit and daily 71750/ bring
forth new feasts of the virtues for the joy of God’s people; but they
rejoice and sing praise to the Lord and proceed upon the Tower of the
Ovens on the day of the dedication of Jerusalem when at the time of
future retribution they rejoice over the everlasting glory and blessed¬
ness of those whom they have educated in life’s precepts. And so the
ovens are the hearts of the elect in which the love of God is poured
out through the Holy Spirit which has been given to them.^ But the
Tower of the Ovens is the very sublimity and guardianship of good
works by means of which these hearts, so that they cannot be cut down
by evil spirits and so that the flames^ of the virtues may not be deflected
or disturbed by the wind of pride, must always be protected with
circumspect caution and solicitude.

[Neh. 12:40] And the two choirs of those who praised stood in the
house of God, and I and half of the officials with me, and so on until
it says. And the singers sang loudly.^ Having walked around the city’s
walls and gardens with songs of joy and musical instruments, they
return to the Lord’s temple so that, while standing there too, they
might praise the Lord with resounding trumpets and there fulfil the
vows of the dedication by offering victims. The Lord’s house mysti¬
cally represents that one and the same homeland of our future life that
the Lord’s city also signifies, just as the present Church is habitually
called in the Scriptures both Christ’s house and his city."* But there is
a difference - namely, that they are said to have ascended the build¬
ings of the city praising with songs of thanksgiving and with
instruments, whereas in the house of God they are said to have praised
and sung loudly while standing still. Lor the elect ascend the walls of
the city which they have built when they enter the joys of the heavenly
homeland, joys which they themselves /1775/ have created through
their perseverance in good works; they discern the different heights of
the gates, steps and buildings when, entering into the Lather’s house,
they contemplate there the diversity of the many mansions for the
different merits of people.^ But they stand still in the house of God

1 Cf. Rom. 5:5.

2 Reading tor flamma: see Appendix 1.

3 Neh. 12:42.

4 Cf. above In Ezr. 1.1^.

5 Cf. John 14:2.

216

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[384] and sing even more loudly when, having each been received in their
mansions, they persist with steadfast residency in the everlasting vision
of their Creator and with undivided voice celebrate his praises
together. In that place, there will be two choirs of people giving thanks:
either they will have been bound together from both peoples (as we
have interpreted above)^ and united in one song of divine praise, or
they will be made up of angels and human beings, fulfilling the Lord’s
prophecy in which it is said that human beings will be equal to the
angels of God.^ But in this life too the righteous ascend to the Lord’s
city with hymns of dedication when, attending with all their heart to
being mindful of future remuneration, they daily make more and more
progress in good deeds, according to that saying of the psalmist: He
has disposed in his heart an ascent in the vale of tearsf and again:
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord3
For consider that he calls those who walk in the law of the Lord unde¬
filed in the way also, no doubt because they maintain the innocence
of heart and works they have received but only in such a way that they
constantly strive to grow to higher merits of the virtues. Moreover,
they stand in the Lord’s house with praises because they persist tire¬
lessly in this very progress of good works, according to the blessed
Elijah’s words: The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand,^ i.e. in the fulfil¬
ment of whose will I endure with an unwearying mind. Moreover, it is
well that there follows:

[Neh. 12:42] 71800/ And they sacrificed great victims on that day, and
they rejoiced. For on that day of perpetual light about which
Zechariah said. And there shall be one day that is known to the Lord,
not day or nighf (that is, a day which is remote from the usual expe¬
rience of passing time), the elect sacrifice great victims to the Lord,
namely those about which the psalmist, tasting them in the hope of
things to come, said: You have broken my bonds; I will offer to you the
sacrifice of praised He properly also reveals where he was hoping that
he would offer this sacrifice when he immediately adds, I will pay my

1 Cf. Bede In Ezr. 3.1641-42.

2 Cf. Matt. 22:30; Luke 20:36.

3 Ps. 84:5-6 (83:6-7).

4Ps. 119:1 (118:1).

5 1 Kings 17:1.

6 Zech. 14:7.

7Ps. 116:16-17 (115:16-17).

BOOK THREE

217

vows unto the Lord in the courtyards of the Lord’s house, in the sight
of all his people, in the midst of thee. Oh Jerusalem} For we pay our
vows to the Lord in the midst of Jerusalem in the sight of all his people
when, in the heavenly homeland, after the whole multitude of the
saints has congregated, we offer those praises of thanksgiving to him
which in this present life we sigh for and thirst for with daily desire.

[Neh. 12:43] For God had made them joyful with great joy, but their
wives and children also rejoiced. These matters truly pertain to that
work of building the holy city which is in the future, in which, because
God is that king who makes his citizens joyful by his presence, there
will assuredly be great joy. Hence when this same king was born in the [385]
flesh, the angel who appeared to the shepherds said. For behold, I
bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people,^ no doubt
to distinguish this kind of joy from human joy, which is both small and
transitory and thus should be considered of no account by those who
are wise. Now it is well that the wives of the citizens and also the chil¬
dren are reported to have rejoiced in that joy which God gave to his
city, because at the time of the resurrection 71825/ not only do those
who have built the Church either by preaching the word or by
persisting resolutely in the works of faith receive the fruit of their great
labour, but also all those weaker companions of this same faith rejoice
with them in one and the same attainment of eternal life. For the Lord
has blessed all who fear him, both little and great? This dedication can
be interpreted typologically as having begun even in this life for certain
people of the elect who, having purified the eye of the heart, deserve
to contemplate in some part all those joys that the Church is to gain
in the future, as did Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and other prophets; as did
the apostles who rejoiced to behold the Lord when he was glorified on
the holy mountain;'* as did Paul who merited to be taken up into para¬
dise and the third heaven;^ as did John in his Apocalypse.^ The higher
all these went up to the upper regions of the heavenly city, the more
loudly did they take care to sing the Lord’s praises and always to sacri¬
fice the greatest victims of good works to him.

1 Ps. 116:18-19 (115:18-19).

2 Luke 2:10.

3 Ps. 115:13 (113:21).

4 Cf. Matt. 17:1-8.

5 Cf. 2 Cor. 12:2.

6 Cf. Rev. 1:10; 4:1-2.

218

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[Neh. 12:43] They also appointed on that day men over the storerooms
of the treasnry, for the libations, and for the first-frnits, and for the
tithes, so that throngh these men the rnlers of the city might employ
priests and Levites for the glory of thanksgiving. As all were rejoicing
over the building and dedication of the city, it was arranged with all
determination that in this city the practice of religion, which was to be
carried out above all in the ceremonies, teaching and duties of the
priests, Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, would be preserved and
would grow, and for this reason zealous men were appointed to collect
money from the people, 71850/ deposit it in the treasury of the temple,
and carefully guard it for the employment of these ministers of the
temple and altar. With sedulous care they also were to keep the first-
fruits, tithes, and wine for the libations which were brought to the
temple, so that with an abundant supply of those things that were
either to be offered to the Lord or used to sustain the lives of the Lord’s
ministers, a multitude of these ministers might more willingly agree to
make their dwelling in Jerusalem to teach and sanctify the crowd of
people who flocked there.

[ 386 ] [Neh. 12:44] For Judah rejoiced in the priests and Levites who assisted
them, and so on. The reason that the people liked the priests, Levites,
and other ministers of holy things to dwell in Jerusalem is that they
rejoiced in the good works of those by whose God-devoted persever¬
ance not only had the people been corrected from their sins but also
the city rebuilt and dedicated with great praise and joy. On the other
hand, the allegorical exposition of this chapter is clear to us because
the Lord stated that those who preach the gospel should live by the
gospel} But woe to those priests and ministers of holy things who are
happy to take from the people the payments due to their rank but are
not at all eager to labour for the salvation of this same people, nor to
offer them any holy guidance by living uprightly, nor to sing of the
pleasantness of the heavenly kingdom by preaching something
delightful to them; instead, so far from opening the doors of the heav¬
enly city for them by having citizenship in heaven, they are proven
rather to shut these doors by acting perversely, and so far from
rejoicing in the works of these ministers when confessing or praising
the Lord, the people are compelled to be all the more afflicted.^

1 1 Cor. 9:14.

2 On the theme of clerical avarice, cf. Bede In Ezr. 3.825-37, and the accompanying
note.

BOOK THREE

219

Certainly we should note 71875/ that the men of Judah who above
were speaking as if in despair over the construction of the city, ‘The
strength of him who carries has given ont, and the rnbble is too great,
and we will not be able to bnild the wall’,^ and the rest of that passage,
had now already regained the strength of both mind and body to
remove the rubble that was impeding the building of the wall which
had fallen and to defeat the attacks of their enemies which threatened
them; and for this reason they deservedly rejoice in the priests and the
Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers by whose toil and exhortation
they have avoided the danger of so considerable an affliction and
found so great a glory of restored prosperity. You also, therefore,
should you see that your heart is encumbered by the rubble of the vices
so that you are unable to build a city there worthy of divine habita¬
tion, should you observe that the spiteful enemy wants you to retreat
from removing the debris of the vices and from building walls of the
virtues - listen to the consolation and counsels of priests, be assiduous
in heeding and remembering divine readings, and thus let it be that,
having rejected the attacks of the demons, God the victor may enter
the abode of your heart, as if he is about to sanctify his city and make
his dwelling in you.

[Neh. 12:47] And they sanctified the Levites, and the Levites sancti¬
fied the sons of Aaron. The people used to sanctify the Levites by
giving tithes to them, as if to the saints of God, and the Levites them¬
selves used to sanctify the priests by offering a tenth part^ from their
own tithes to those who were, so to speak, higher then themselves.

[Neh. 13:1-2] Now on that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in
the hearing of the people, and there it was found written that the [ 387 ]
Ammonites and the Moabites should never be admitted into the
assembly of God forever, 71900/ because they did not meet the chil¬
dren of Israel with food and water and they hired Balaam to curse
them, and so on. It is known that the Moabites and the Ammonites,
because they were born from incest,^ figuratively represent heretics,
whose authors through their faulty understanding corrupt the teaching
of the Fathers from which they themselves were instructed, just as the
daughters of Lot secretly and in darkness and illegitimately use the
seed of their father; and for this reason the offspring of such ones (i.e.

1 Neh. 4:10.

2 Num. 18:20-32.

3 Cf. Gen. 19:30-38; cf. above In Ezr. 3.695-702.

220

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

adherents of heresies) can never have any part in the Lord’s Church.
For those who are set straight from these heresies will no longer be
the offspring of such mothers. Now they would meet the children of
Israel with food and water as they are coming from Egypt if they them¬
selves, living well and dwelling in catholic peace, were to bestow the
solace of God’s word upon those who, recently rescued from the servi¬
tude of sins through the water of baptism as if through the waves of
the sea, are panting for the freedom of the celestial homeland. This is
just what Barzillai the Gileadite did: he came with provisions to meet
David and his army as they were fleeing from Absalom in order, by
reviving and helping them, to make them stronger against the new
tyranny of the king’s son^ - signifying, no doubt, those who with the
reinforcements of the celestial word take care to strengthen the
Church when it is disrupted by heretics and to arouse her to fight
against their madness. But while these heretics strive to ruin recent
converts both by their own depravities and by revealing the wicked
examples or words of others, it is as if, born from incest, they are
fighting against the people of Israel who have come out from Egypt
both with their own weapons and with the abominable curses and
counsels of Balaam the soothsayer (who is interpreted as ‘the vanity
of the people’).^ But God also 71925/ turned Balaam’s curse^ into a
blessing for his people and defended them from the weapons of the
hostile nations, since all things work together for good for those who
love God*

[Neh. 13:3-4] And it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that
they separated every foreigner from Israel. And over this was Eliashib^
the priest. When they heard the law concerning the anathematizing of
the two hostile nations, the faithful people immediately separated
every foreigner from them, because we must so direct ourselves to the
hearing of the truth, when we are prohibited by divine reading from
any particular vice, we must immediately struggle to remove both from
our deeds and from our conscience not only the one that happens to

1 2 Sam. 17:27-29.

2 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:79, 20).

3 Num. 22-24.

4 Rom. 8:28.

5 Modern biblical scholars are unsure whether this ‘Eliashib the priest’ was the same
person as ‘Eliashib the high priest’ mentioned earlier in Neh. 3:1 (see In Ezr. 3.211-14),
though he may have been: see Myers 1965: 214; and Brockington 1969: 208.

BOOK THREE

221

have been mentioned but whatever polluting vice we find in ourselves.

[Neh. 13:5-6] He therefore made himself a large storeroom and there [388]
in front of him they were placing the gifts and incense and vessels, and
also the tithes of corn, wine, and oil, the portions of the Levites and
singers and gatekeepers, and the first-frnits of the priests. Bnt dnring
all this I was not in Jernsalem, and so on. This sentence, in which
Nehemiah writes that he was not in Jerusalem, appears to pertain not
to those matters that he had recounted above until this point, but only
to the present passage. For during that previous time in which the city
was built and dedicated, whatever was done and said seems to relate
to when Nehemiah was still dwelling in Jerusalem; and when these
things had been completed by his efforts, he returned to the king and
it was in his absence that Eliashib made himself a large treasury, in
which to store those articles that were necessary either for the ministry
of the Lord’s house or for the use of the ministers. He 71950/ did not
even fear to put certain illicit objects in the treasury of the Lord’s house
which Nehemiah, when he returned to Jerusalem, was immediately
keen to get rid of, for there follows:

[Neh. 13:7] And I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evU thing
Eliashib had done for Tobiah in providing him a storeroom in the
vestibule of the house of God. We read above that Tobiah was an
Ammonite official hostile to God’s people,^ which is why Eliashib the
priest acted very wickedly when, even though he was his relative,^ he
made a storeroom in the vestibule of God’s house to place his vessels
having cast out from there the vessels of God’s house as well as other
articles which his service required. For what do righteousness and
wickedness have in common? What harmony is there between Christ
and Belial? What agreement is there between the temple of God and
idols?^ What fellowship do heretics and schismatics have with the
orthodox and peace-loving children of God?

1 Cf. In Ezr. 3.695-706.

2 Neh. 13;4 implies that Eliashib and Tobiah were somehow related, so that Eliashib,
in providing Tobiah with a chamber in the temple, was in a sense merely showing hospi¬
tality to a relative. Ammonites, however, were forbidden by law from association with
Jews (see Dent. 23:3) and so were barred from entering the temple. Yet Tobiah had
married the daughter of a Jew (see Neh. 6:18) and, so it seems, had successfully insinu¬
ated himself into the Jewish community, using this influence to convince Eliashib to
allow him into the temple.

3 2 Cor. 6:14-16.

222

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

[Neh. 13:8-9] And I cast out the vessels of the house of Tobiah from
the storeroom. And I gave orders and they purified the storerooms,
and then I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, the
sacrifice, and the incense. You also, whatever infidelity and unclean¬
ness you discover among the faithful, immediately cast it out so that
after the hearts of believers (which are the Lord’s storerooms, since
they are full of the riches of the virtues), have been purified, the vessels
of the Lord may be brought in - that is to say, those same hearts that
just before were vessels of error through sin may again become vessels
of the Lord through correction, and there let the sacrifice of good
works and the incense of pure prayer be found where before there was
a den of thieves.^ But the vessels of Tobiah the Ammonite are also cast
out from the temple storeroom, and God’s vessels as well as the sacri¬
fice and the incense are returned to that place by those who, after they
have excommunicated or anathematized /1975/ heretics and false
catholics and expelled them from the Church, substitute in their place
catholic servants of Christ such as may serve him with faithful deeds
[389] and prayers. Clearly, we ought to compare this zeal of Nehemiah to
that of the Lord Saviour when, finding vendors and buyers in the
temple, he made a whip from cords and drove them all outside.^
Nehemiah, in this as in his other undertakings, aptly conveyed a type
of the true Consoler and Cleanser.

[Neh. 13:15] In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading
winepresses on the sabbath and bringing in grain and loading donkeys
with wine and grapes and figs and every kind of load, and they were
bringing all this into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. And I protested
that they should sell on a day on which it is lawful to sell. We are
commanded by the Law to do for six days the things that are neces¬
sary and to rest on the seventh.^ The general mystery of this command
is clear: namely, that in this world, which lasts for six ages, all the elect
should labour for eternal rest, but on a day which is to come, as it were
on the seventh, should hope for that rest itself from the Lord.'* But
according to tropology (i.e. the moral sense), the elect even in this life
keep the sabbath holy for the Lord when, having separated themselves

1 Cf. Jer. 7:11.

2 Cf. Matt. 21:12; John 2:14-15.

3 Cf. Ex. 20:9-10.

4 Cf. Bede Horn. 2.17 (308.297-309.311), for a passage with strong resemblances to
this one. On the Six World Ages, cf. Bede In Ezr. 1.1201-03 and the accompanying note.

BOOK THREE

223

at the appropriate time from worldly concerns, they make time for
prayer and raise their minds, which have been purified, to the contem¬
plation of heavenly things. For when we carry out those things that
care for the body lawfully demands with a sincere heart and not with
desires contrary to the precept of the Apostle,^ we are, so to speak,
performing our necessary work in the six days, since we are occupied
with those things that we have need of in this world. Moreover, /2000/
the sabbath rest of our prayers and devotion, in which we abstain from
doing temporal things in order that we may deserve to taste the joys
of eternity more sweetly, is rightly assigned to the seventh day because
it represents the rest of the future life and of blessed praising. But these
foreigners seek to profane the sabbath day when earthly thoughts
inopportunely disturb us during the moment of our prayer and
through the memory or delight of earthly things strive to take us away
from our inmost love. They put wine and grapes and figs and every
kind of load on donkeys and bring them into Jerusalem when,
weighing down the foolish motions of our minds with carnal delights,
they try through these and other such temptations to violate the quiet¬
ness of our hearts that we devote to God. But Nehemiah speaks against
these tumults of unbefitting thoughts to prevent them from disturbing
our sabbath when, with the Lord’s help, we exclude with careful atten¬
tion futile and foolish fantasies from our heart at the time of prayer.

He protests that they should sell goods of this kind on the day on which
it is lawful to sell when a soul that is devoted to God imposes this limi¬
tation on its own thoughts: namely, that they should abstain during the [390]
time of prayer from concerns of transient things, and yet at other times,
when the opportunity dictates, turn their gaze not entirely away from
those things that pertain to food and clothing but rather deal with these
things with appropriate moderation, when necessity requires.

[Neh. 13:16-17] The Tyrians also settled in the city and were bringing
in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the sabbath
to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. And I rebuked the nobles
of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this wicked thing 72025/ you are
doing, desecrating the sabbath day?’ Just as a good fish is devout faith,
which whoever asks for it from the Lord in no way receives the serpent
of infidelity,^ so a bad fish is the basest kind of thought that habitually

1 Cf. Rom. 13:14.

2Cf. Matt. 7:10; Luke 11:11.

224

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

immerses itself more than it should in the concerns of this world; and
the Tyrians (whose name means ‘hemmed in’)^ seek to sell it to us on
the sabbath when unclean spirits inopportunely try to sink the rest¬
fulness of our devout kind of thought in the deep concerns of the world.
But Nehemiah rebukes and chastises the nobles of Judah for such
trade when divine inspiration mercifully cleanses those who strive to
serve the profession of devotion from thoughts of this sort.

[Neh. 13:19] And so it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem
were at rest on the day of the sabbath, I spoke and they shut the gates;
and I gave orders that they should not open them until after the
sabbath. If our conscience, when purged from the vices, rejoices to
have God dwelling in it, rightly can it be called ‘Jerusalem’. What are
the gates of this Jerusalem if not our bodily senses (namely sight,
hearing, taste, smell, and touch) through which those things that are
done outside come to the notice of our mind by entering, so to speak?
We are ordered to shut these gates on the day of the sabbath so that
when we seek to make time for God by occupying ourselves with
psalms and prayers, we drive away from our mind every single thing
that is being done outwardly, and alone in secret pray to and praise
our judge with a free mind. And since ‘no one reaches the top
suddenly’,^ but only after the long progress of a holy way of life should
one 72050/ arrive, with the help of Christ’s grace, at this perfection and
peace of mind of which we speak, it is rightly added concerning these
matters:

[Neh. 13:22] And I said to the Levites that they should be purified and
should come to guard the gates and to make the sabbath day holy. For

those who desire to guard all the doors of their senses from the assault
of unruly thought must be cleansed by the daily exercise of good
works; and whoever wishes to make the sabbath holy (that is, to make
[391] for himself a profitable leisure-time for prayers, psalmody, holy
reading, and weeping) must cleanse his conscience with great care so
that he may be able to fulfil his intention to act well. This can also
rightly be understood in the allegorical sense concerning teachers of

1 Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:149.27); cf. Bede In Ezr. 1.1335-36.

2 Gregory the Great Homiliae in Ezechielem 2.3.3 (CCSL 142:238.53-55). Bede was
evidently fond of this phrase of Gregory, borrowing it often in his exegesis: e.g. De tab.
2 (89.1877-82); De tempi. 2 (225.1300-07); In Luc. 4 (270.1552) and 5 (309.547-49); and
In Marc. 3 (549.286-88). On the spiritual life as a progression through various stages,
cf. Bede In Ezr. 1.375-79 and the accompanying note.

BOOK THREE

225

the faithful. For those who are eager to keep the gates of the Holy
Church (i.e. the faith and works of their hearers through which alone
one enters the Church) from the contagion of heretics and of vices
beating upon them must himself first purify their heart and actions
from every stain of error.

[Neh. 13:23-25] Moreover, in those days I saw Jews who had married
women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab; and their children spoke
partly in the langnage of Ashdod, and did not know how to speak the
langnage of the Jews, and they spoke in the langnage of this or that
people; and I rebuked them and called curses down on them; and I
beat some of the men, and so on. Today too in the Holy Church people
marry foreign women whenever they contaminate their conscience
with the delights of sins that properly pertain to the Gentiles; and the
children born from them do not know how to speak the language of
the Jews when the works that have sprung forth from their sinful minds
reveal that there is not a shred of devout profession in them but
resound with Gentile stupidity rather than ecclesiastical /2075/ purity.
For Azotus (Ashdod), which in Hebrew is called ‘Esdod’, is inter¬
preted as ‘word of fireV and for this reason, according to the
tropological sense, the children born from the foreign women speak
the language of Ashdod when works engendered through wantonness
await the punishment of eternal burning. Hence rightly the fathers of
such ones were not only reproached and cursed by Nehemiah but some
of them also beaten, because it is necessary that the erring should be
more severely restrained by teachers of the truth so that they learn to
be transferred by a favourable change from the word of chastising fire
to the word of divine praise. But also when heretics pay attention to
the studies of Gentile philosophy, dialectic and rhetoric^ more than to
ecclesiastical simplicity one should not marvel if their hearers should
speak the language of this or that people, paying lip service to Holy
Scripture’s words but interpreting them with a misguided and Gentile
understanding.

[Neh. 13:30-31] So I purified them from all the foreigners, and I
appointed orders of priests and Levites, each in their own ministry,
and for the offering of wood at designated times, and for the first-fruits.
Remember me with favour. Oh my God. It is in all respects an apt and

1 Cf. Jerome De nominibus hebraicis (CCSL 72:143, 3-5).

2 On Bede’s attitude towards classical learning, cf. In Ezr. 1.969-75.

226

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

appropriate end to the work of building the holy city and the temple
of the Lord that when the citizens have been purified by God from all
the filth of foreign pollution, which is alien to God, the orders of the
priests and the Levites should be duly preserved in their own ministry
[392] in order that the teachers of the Church who have been instructed
according to rule may continually exhort the people now cleansed
from all sin to remain henceforth in goodness and to grow. Among
other things, the people offer wood to the Lord to feed the fire of the
altar 72100/ when they perform works of virtues that are assuredly
worthy of divine consecration. For if wood did not sometimes
symbolize something good the prophet would not say: Then shall all
the wood of the forests rejoice in the presence of the Lord} Now the
wood burns and is consumed in the altar of holocausts when in the
hearts of the elect works of righteousness are perfected in the flame
of love. Rightly, therefore, does the founder and dedicator of such a
city, after the many labours of his devotion, commend himself to the
memory of his Creator and provider of all good things. And you,
highest father of lights] by whom every excellent thing is given and
from whom every perfect gift descends, you who have given me, the
humblest of your servants, both the love and the aid to consider the
wonders of your law,^ and have manifested to me, unworthy though I
am, the grace not only to grasp the ancient offerings in the treasury of
this prophetic book but also to discover new ones'* beneath the veil of
the old and to bring them forth for the use of my fellow servants -
Remember me with favour, oh my God.^

1 Ps. 96:12-13 (95:12-13).

2 Cf. Jam. 1:17.

3 Cf. Ps. 119:18 (118:18).

4 Cf. Matt. 13:52. There is perhaps also an echo here of Regiila Benedicti 64.9, which
quotes this verse: ‘Oportet ergo eum esse doctum lege divina, ut sciat et sit unde proferat
nova et vetera’ (‘He ought, therefore, to be learned in the divine law, so that he has a
treasury of knowledge from which he can bring out what is new and old’, trans. Fry 283).
Morever, the statement is of further interest in attesting to Bede’s own sense of his autho¬
rial role: it was not limited to summarizing the thoughts of others but, as he implies here,
could involve the development and expression of his own insights into the biblical text.

5 Neh. 13:10; cf. Neh. 5:19. On Ezra and Nehemiah is the only Bedan commentary
that concludes with a first-person prayer. As suggested (see Introduction, p. xli-xlii),
this could provide further support for my suggestion that On Ezra and Nehemiah is a
late work. Indeed, this prayer constitutes yet another link to another undoubtedly late
work, the Ecclesiastical Elistory, which concludes in a similar fashion: see HE 5.24 (570).

APPENDIX 1

NOTES ON TEXTUAL EMENDATIONS

A = British Library Arundel 37, s.ix/x (ends at In Ezr. 3.407)
R = British Library Royal 3 A XII (Cirencester, 1147/1176)

Book / Line

CCSL 119A: 237-392

PL 91.807B-924C

Correction

1.1335,1339

coangustiati

coangustati

1.1430

superamus

sperantes

speramus
(R in margin)

1.1507

aedificat

aedificant

1.1653

quae

quam

1.1678

religatus

relegatus

1.1732

quidam

quidem

1.1794

accedens

accendens

accendens
(A and R)

2.54

revereantur

revertantur

2.62

quod

quos

2.191

obstupescere

obstupescunt (R)

2.287

fratres

patres

2.383

Aderint

Aderit

2.1019

et Bethleem

in Bethlehem

in Babiloniam (A)
in Babilonem (R)

2.1026

fortia... forma
extinguere

om. forma

fortia... et
firma extinguere

2.1100

consialiatores

consiliatores

2.1161

ut (A and R)

2.1466

gentes

gratiam agentes

(R)

228 BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

2.1750

habebunt

habemus

2.1993

reprobasse

reproba esse

3.314

iuvendo

vivendo

3.568

habitabat

habitant

3.700

immundiatia

immunditia

3.856

ipse

ipsum

3.857

elemosinam...

dandam

eleemosynam...

dandam

elemosinam...

dando

3.1207

de tabernaculis nostris de habitaculis
nostris

de habitaculis
nostris

3.1293

exoptissima

exoptatissima

3.1385

magni

magis

3.1758

flamma

flammae

APPENDIX 2

THE EZRA MINIATURE

Renowned for being the oldest extant complete Vulgate Bible, the
Codex Amiatinus is also famed for its opening quire of decorative
pages. One of these (fol. Vr) joined Bede’s commentary in fostering
Ezra’s acclaim in eighth-century Northumbria. It contains a painted
miniature of a scribe in the guise of a Jewish priest; seated in front of
a cupboard containing nine volumes, he writes in a book on his lap,
the floor around him strewn about with the tools of his scribal trade.
At the top of the page a couplet identifies the figure as Ezra restoring
holy scripture: Codicibus sacris hostili clade periistis / Esdra Deo
fervens hoc reparavit opus (‘After the sacred books were destroyed by
enemy devastation, / Ezra, in his zeal for God, restored this work’).^
Although crafted at Wearmouth-Jarrow sometime before 716 quite
probably under the direction of Bede himself, this famous miniature
has long been discussed primarily with reference to Cassiodorus and
the intellectual and artistic programme of sixth-century Vivarium, as
much scholarship has sought to locate its exemplar there.^ No attempt
can be made in this short appendix to take stock of this or other aspects
of the miniature’s critical history, nor will space be devoted to the
problems surrounding other parts of Amiatinus’s opening quire.^ In
keeping with the aim of the present volume, our focus must remain
Bede’s commentary, which, surprisingly, many commentators on the
miniature have ignored. Accordingly, what follows will address a few
pertinent connections that obtain between them.

First, Bede’s words hostili clade pemstae (‘destroyed by enemy

1 See the front cover of this volume. For a good colour reproduction, see Marsden
1995b.

2 On the miniature’s connection to Cassiodorus and the Codex Grandior, see Bruce-
Mitford 1967; Merten 1987; Meyvaert 1996; Flenderson 1993 and 1999: 77-87; Marsden
1995a: 120-21 and 1995b; O’Reilly 2001; and Vessey 2003: 67-71 and 2004: 7-12. For
other views, see Nordhagen 1977; Corsano 1987; Nees 1999; and Chazelle 2003.

3 For a range of opinion on the first quire, see Bruce-Mitford 1967; Corsano 1987;
Meyvaert 1996; and Chazelle 2003.

230

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

devastation’) in Book 2 echo a portion of the couplet above the minia¬
tured Because the full couplet appears word for word in a poem by
Alcuin (Carmina 69), it was once thought to be authored by him and
added to the miniature later. However, in an article published in 1995,
Paul Meyvaert suggested that the appearance of this quotation in
Book 2 of Bede’s commentary, along with comparable echoes of the
wording elsewhere in his oeuvre, constitutes sufficient evidence for
Bedan authorship of the couplet.^ Whether Bede composed it specif¬
ically for inclusion in the miniature or adapted it from something else
he had composed, and what we might infer from the verbal overlap
about the miniature’s chronological relation to the commentary, are
less easy to resolve. Meyvaert, in a more recent discussion, has claimed
further that the overlap in fact indicates that the commentary was
written early, between the years 711-715 when Amiatinus was being
prepared, and that Bede’s remarks in Book 2 served as the source from
which the couplet, added to the miniature just before Amiatinus left
from Rome, was crafted.^ But the attractiveness of such a scenario
does not make it true. We saw that there is credible evidence for dating
the commentary much later than circa 715.'* Moreover, as proof for
dating the commentary, such meagre verbal overlap is in my view far
from a conclusive piece of evidence. Whether Bede borrowed the
couplet from some unidentified exemplar or composed it himself,
there is nothing to compel the conclusion that he made use of it only
during the years 711-715; presumably he could have retrieved or
recalled and redeployed it at any time during the remaining nineteen
years before his death in 735. And even if while he did work on both
the image and the commentary early in his career, there is no reason
that his early work on Ezra and Amiatinus could not have led him to
think about Ezra over a period of years, with the commentary in its
complete three-book format emerging later on as the matured fruit of
that reflection and forming part of a larger exegetical project that
included On the Tabernacle and On the Temple.

Moving from chronological to thematic associations puts us on a
more solid ground for connecting the two productions. For example,

1 See In Ezr. 2.11 A-15 and the accompanying note.

2 See Meyvaert 1996: 877; also Marsden 1995a: 121-22. On Bede’s involvement with
Amiatinus, see Marsden 1998

3 See Meyvaert 2005: 1098-99. On other arguments for an early date, see
Introduction, pp. xxxviii-xli.

4 See Introduction, pp. xxxix-xlii.

APPENDIX 2

231

the emphasis on the dual roles of priest and scribe, plainly visualized
in the miniature, is also at the centre of Bede’s exegetical treatment of
Ezra; there is no need for Vivarium to make sense of them3
Wearmouth-Jarrow possessed one of the greatest scriptorium in the
early medieval West; what better emblem was there of scribal zeal and
scriptural learning for its biblical scholars to identify with than Ezra
scriba velox (‘the swift scribe’) who, Bede informs us, single-handedly
rewrote the whole run of the Scriptures destroyed in the Chaldean sack
of Jerusalem^ In thematizing this detail, drawn not from Ezra-
Nehemiah but from non-canonical and exegetical sources,^ both
commentary and miniature converge in characterizing Ezra as an
adept textual scholar, the latter picturing something of what the
former explains: that in restoring the canon, Ezra the scribe had added
material to some texts, chose not to re-edit others, and even devised
his own special script to speed along the re-writing process.'* For the
Northumbrian scholars who crafted the Codex Amiatinus and the
other pandects, and not least for Bede himself, Ezra’s editorial activ¬
ities thus provided, in Jennifer O’Reilly’s words, ‘a practical context’^
for their own scholarly endeavours.

Yet, while the Wearmouth-Jarrow scribes, as fellows in the trade,
could no doubt appreciate such textual activities in and of themselves,
Bede’s commentary, by connecting Ezra’s scribal endeavours with the
spiritual reform of his people,^ suggests that the figure depicted in the
miniature may have been designed to represent much more, a symbol of
this Northumbrian community’s charge to preach and teach God’s Word
to the people. Indeed, Wearmouth-Jarrow’s corporate concern not only
with the preservation and transmission of Scripture, but equally with its
propagation to wider audiences, evident in Bede’s own exegetical
undertakings, can be profitably understood as a latter-day extension, if
not the purposeful re-enactment of, Ezra’s own edifying scribal mission.’

1 Indeed, to my knowledge we lack any evidence to suggest that Cassiodorus consid¬
ered Ezra an important figure.

2 See In Ezr. 2.791-821.

3 See In Ezr. 2.791-821 and the accompanying notes.

4 See In Ezr. 2.796-821.

5 O’Reilly 2001; 28; on Bede’s involvement in Amiatinus’s production, see Marsden
1998 and Meyvaert 1995.

6 See In Ezr. 2.772-78 and the accompanying note; also Introduction, pp. xxxi-xxxvi.

7 On Bede as a ‘Northumbrian Ezra’, see Introduction, p. xxxv and DeGregorio 2004:
16-18.

232

BEDE: ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH

Surely these contemporary ramifications found in Bede’s treatment of
Ezra’s scribal vocation would not have been far from the minds of the
Northumbrian artists who crafted the miniature. Placed prominently
in Amiatinus’s opening quire, Ezra the scribe thus does not simply
prefigure Christ the Heavenly Scribe, whose image appears in
Amiatinus before the New Testament; he also registers Bede’s and
Wearmouth-Jarrow’s own sense of its Ezra-like charge to spread the
Word through texts and teaching.

Concerning the role of priest, much debate has surrounded the
priestly dress worn by the figure in the miniature. The standard view
is that his jewelled breast-plate and the head-dress are meant to iden¬
tify him as a pontifex or high priest. Paul Meyvaert has argued that this
high-priestly component of the image is attributable to Bede and the
Wearmouth-Jarrow artists, who, unaware that the portrait in their
exemplar represented Cassiodorus, concluded that it must be Ezra and
decided to clarify this by vesting him with high-priestly insignia. As
support for this hypothesis, Meyvaert cites Bede’s reference to Ezra
as pontifex in his Thirty Questions on the Book of Kings as proof that
Bede earlier on erroneously believed Ezra was really a high priest, a
view Meyvaert believes Bede later corrected when he came to write
on Ezra-Nehemiah.^

While the priestly outfit may be attributable to Bede, one may ques¬
tion whether it was meant to represent Ezra as an actual high priest or
that Bede was muddled in calling Ezra a pontifex. In the first place,
that the figure in the miniature is not literally intended to represent a
high priest is evident insofar as he wears only two of the eight vest¬
ments specified in Exodus 28:4, namely the breast-plate and
head-dress.^ But if these two insignia were not intended to indicate
Ezra’s high-priesthood, what else could they mean? Here, Bede’s
commentary and other exegetical writings are invaluable, for they
direct our attention not to the literal meaning of these garments, but
to their spiritual interpretation. Hence, in the commentary, Bede
states that the head-dress signifies ‘the dignity of the priesthood’,^
while in his more extended meditation on the priestly vestments in De
tabernaculo he points out that the reason a priest must wear a head-

1 Meyvaert 1996: 870-77 and 1997: 285.

2 See O’Reilly 2001: 20.

3 In Ezr. 3.1886-89.

APPENDIX 2

233

dress is ‘...so that he may be admonished by this garment to conse¬
crate all the senses of his head to God, lest his eyes should look to
vanity’.^ In that same work, he identifies the breast-plate with ‘the
priest’s heart and thoughts’,^ and equates the garments protecting the
chest with the priest’s constant need to ‘discern good from evil with
careful examination’.^ And the breast-plate is studded with gems, he
says, so that for all people the priest will always ‘exhibit both confes¬
sion of true faith and the examples of good action, so that by imitating
his right faith and action they may themselves also merit to be made
members of the High Priest’.'*

For Bede, then, these high-priestly insignia may be said to denote
religious leadership. In the miniature, they accordingly serve to under¬
score Ezra’s role as pontifex, not in the sense of a real high priest, but
rather in Bede’s notable reformist definition of the word: pontifex, id
est archiepiscopus (‘a pontifex, i.e. an archbishop’). That is to say, the
miniature with its priestly and scribal ornaments is a pictorial allegory:
it reveals Ezra as a special hieratic figure to be sure, yet in terms meant
not to characterize him historically, but rather to translate his rele¬
vance into the contemporary moment as a symbol of religious
authority.^ The Ezra of the miniature, like the Ezra of Bede’s commen¬
tary, is at once scribe and teacher and pontifical leader: miniature and
commentary are thus of a piece in their depictions of this Old
Testament figure. Thus, even if we do have something in the minia¬
ture that goes back ultimately to Cassiodorus and Vivarium, reading
it in the light of Bede’s commentary shows still more that we have
something traceable to the intellectual and spiritual values of
Wearmouth-Jarrow itself, whose artists, scribes and house author
joined together in forging and promoting an image of Ezra as a cultur¬
ally and ideologically relevant figure.

1 De tab. 3 (117.932-35); trans. Holder 135.

2 De tab. 3 (102.383-86); trans. Holder 118.

3 De tab. 3 (102.391-103.395); trans. Holder 118.

4 De tab. 3 (104.456-60); trans. Holder 120.

5 For more on this interpretation, Introduction, pp. xxxiii-xxxv and DeGregorio
2004; 18-20.

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INDEX OF SOURCES AND ALLUSIONS

1. BIBLE

Genesis

23:34^3

46,196

2:2

23:39^0

199

2:14

4:4-8

Numbers

6:14

12:7

8:20

18:20-32

219

12:7

21:14

110

13:4

22-24

220

14:18

29:12

15:6

29:12-39

19:30-38

180, 219

22:1-13

53,55

Deuteronomy

28:12

172

9:9

196

32:28

137

16:1

132

22:8

198

Exodus

1:22

119

34:10

110

12:2

132

Joshua

13:3-4

132

1:6

204

20:8

203

9:16-27

175

20:9-10

222

10:13

110

20:9-11

192